Conor McGregor’s Coach Makes Shock Admission About Potential Justin Gaethje Fight

Conor McGregor's coach has revealed that an MMA super-fight with UFC star Justin Gaethje was "close to being done."

Gaethje, 31, stunned the MMA world in May when he secured a sensational fifth-round TKO win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 for the interim lightweight championship.

The 'Highlight' stepped up to face Ferguson after UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov was stuck in his native homeland due to the coronavirus pandemic.

And now John Kavanagh has admitted that the McGregor camp could have been preparing for the Gaethje fight "any week now."

He said on MMA World: "It was close to being done. It's kind of sad now that it didn't happen.

"We have obviously the coronavirus and how everything went with the world. I think we could've been getting ready for that fight any week now if things hadn't have happened the way they did. But here we are, so all we can do is speculate."

McGregor, who returned to UFC back in January against Donald Cerrone, has since announced his third retirement in the space of four years.

However, Kavanagh felt that the 'Notorious' facing Gaethje would "probably [be] the best fight" due to their stylistic similarities.

The 43-year-old Irish MMA coach explained: "I think the Gaethje fight is probably the best fight I could imagine because he has the style that really matches well with Conor.

"Gaethje likes to march forward. He sits down on his shots, he throws heavy shots. He doesn't seem to care about being hit.

"And he likes coming forward. Conor's always done very well as a counter fighter. Although he does walk forward, he responds to people's attacks very well."

Gaethje is now expected to challenge McGregor's fierce rival, Khabib, for the UFC lightweight championship.

Kavanagh also responded to a question asking if future UFC Hall of Famer McGregor had 'truly retired' from MMA.

Featured Image Credit: MMA World/PA

Topics: Conor Mcgregor, Justin Gaethje, Notorious, UFC News, MMA News, John Kavanagh, UFC, MMA

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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