WE’VE HAD SOME very good nights in Las Vegas over the last 18 months or so but unfortunately last Saturday wasn’t one of them.
In his second UFC bout, Artem Lobov came up short against Alex White at UFC Fight Night 82, losing by unanimous decision. Everything went perfectly in the build-up so there are absolutely no excuses from our perspective. The whole week out there was great.
In the warm-up room beforehand, a few of the shots we had been working on were flowing very nicely. However, it was unfortunately one of those fights where it just didn’t happen on the night. Even though he hasn’t got a big reach, Artem is usually very good at landing shots and closing the distance. But he couldn’t manage to do that on Saturday.
After consecutive defeats in the octagon, where does Artem go from here? I honestly don’t know. I didn’t speak to anyone at the UFC about it on the night but when I’m back over there for UFC 196, I’ll probably have a chat with matchmaker Sean Shelby about it. Artem is quite tough on himself and he’s already almost assuming that it’s retirement time, but we’ll have to see what the UFC decide.
After the fight on Saturday, both UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and president Dana White came into the changing room for a chat. They told Artem: “You did what we ask fighters to do, and that’s fight your heart out. You didn’t just try to ride out the time instead of going for the finish.”
Hopefully that’ll count for something. I’ll be campaigning for him to get another opportunity. I certainly believe he deserves it and the UFC won’t regret it.
A lot of people have been wondering about when some of our other fighters at SBG Ireland will be back in the octagon. Paddy Holohan has been working on getting our gym in Tallaght — which will open soon — off the ground, so he’s been focusing his energy on that for now. Aisling Daly is still training hard but we’re not planning to have her fight again until much later in the year.
As for Gunnar Nelson, he arrived back at SBG Ireland from Iceland recently to train with Conor McGregor. He’s looking fantastic but we haven’t discussed fights. I have a feeling he’ll get a call-up for Zagreb on 10 April or Rotterdam on 8 May but there’s nothing definite lined up at the moment.
I only arrived back from Las Vegas a couple of days ago but I’ll be heading back out there again in a week or so for Conor McGregor’s historic lightweight title fight against Rafael dos Anjos at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday, 5 March.
Normally at this stage — three weeks out from a fight — there would be a lot of emphasis on the scales for Conor. However, given that he’s fighting at 155lbs this time instead of 145lbs, it’s nice not having to worry about bringing the weight down so much.
All the training is focused on improvement, as opposed to making weight. If anything, we’ve had more fun in this training camp than ever before. Nobody gets into this sport to be the best weight-cutter. This time, everything has been geared towards getting better, not getting lighter.
You can definitely see the impact of that in Conor’s clinch exchanges with the heavier guys in training. He’s very skilful in the clinch but sometimes when he’s cutting down to featherweight he gets pushed around if he’s working with welterweights and above. But now, as well as having the skill, he’s got a more solid frame that can’t be moved around as easily. There’s been a very noticeable strength difference.
Speaking of welterweights, I’ve seen that rumours of Conor fighting Robbie Lawler for the 170lbs belt at UFC 200 on 9 July have been gathering momentum. It’s not something we have discussed specifically but after Conor wins the lightweight belt, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the next fight is for the welterweight belt.
If that’s what Conor wants to do, I’ll absolutely support that move. I think that would be fantastic. We’re already talking about making history in a few weeks, but can you imagine what it will be like if Conor is the champion in three weight classes by the summer?
He’s obviously already the featherweight champion but we haven’t thought about that recently as we’ve been totally focused on the lightweight belt. Once that’s out of the way, we’ll talk about what to do with the featherweight belt.
As time goes on, it’s harder to predict what will happen in the future. Conor has a sort of unusual body type in that even though he can make featherweight, he’s still a very big lightweight. Given some time, as well as a bit of strength and conditioning work, he could also be a force at welterweight. This is an interesting time.
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I hope Conor beats Dos Anjos but I think John is getting ahead of himself by already talking about fighting for the welterweight belt. Conor beating Dos Anjos is by no means a forgone conclusion.
It’s all to build hype and promote him, it’s just good business!
Will be interesting to see how Khabib gets on in his comeback. Can see him being a real threat to Conor at lightweight, presuming he gets past RDA first. As for welterweight, Robbie Lawlor looked under par against Condit and honestly should have lost the belt, if that version of Lawlor turned up against Conor, Conor would beat him imo
Conor the only decent fighter out of all of sbg the rest are rubbish really bad compared to fighters in the ufc it’s like there not being trained properly or some thing Gunnar Nelson should get out of there while he has the chance his skilled are being wasted staying at sbg
Doesn’t SBG team as a whole have the UFC featherweight world title? Mustn’t be doing to bad.
@ GMan, yes one belt, because they have a good fighter.. but has OP said, the rest are pants.. really poor. Gunnar got owned in last fight, he was dominated.. Paddy was dominated in his fight headlining in 3Arena so they need a lot of improvement as they are just limited at that level..
Well to be fair Gunnar Nelson’s last fight was against one of the best Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in the world, I think he’s one a few World Championships. And just because they’re not all challenging for belts doesn’t mean their bad fighters, Top 15 in the UFC, which Nelson was before the fight, I’m not sure if he still is, is still very impressive.
No pleasing some people.
SBG has Conor, Gunnar, Aisling Daly and the Hooligan all on UFC roster, the only other fighters I can think of are Norman Parke and Neil Seery fighting out of other gyms, so to have 4 from one gym isn’t to shabby at all, everyone wants to be an MMA critic until they get a punch in the face.
And lest we forget about the terrible tale of cathal pendred
Yeah it’s s terrible tale alright … Cathal achieved more in a short time span than most of us can ever dream of — now he’s invested some of his money into a business for himself … Terrible tale indeed
@shay lynch Conor only a “decent” fighter?? What’s a fella gotta do!! Gunnar not stuck in SBG he trains in Iceland alot now, and got his next level jits skills from Renzo Gracie in NY. So he’s been around with the best. Conors just next level, the difference in what he’s got over others incl Gunnar is not at all down to SBG
@The destroyer
if we use your way of thinking,Mighty Mouse,Robbie Lawlor and Dominic Cruz should all leave their gyms because they are the only champions that train there? Kavanagh and McGregor have a bond that goes way beyond a fighter/trainer relationship,like the way tyson did wit cus d’amato. They both bring out the best in each other. And seeing as just a few years ago SBG was a shed out a backyard and how far they have come in a short space of time goes to show how quickly THEY are helping MMA grow in this country. Maybe the talent pool isnt as strong in SBG as it is in AKA or Winkeljohn’s gym but this is a relatively new sport over here. also remember that fighters like McGregors and Jon Jones are freaks,once in a generation type of fighters.
Sbg is an international gym and they have several other gyms around the world.
And floods and floods of talent everywhere I may add.
@john mccann good points there… McGregor and Jones etc are unique they’d be class no matter what gym they trained at. And people also forget JK is a grappling not striking coach – Conor hasn’t learnt all his skills in SBG… but clearly the coaching goes beyond that
I don’t care who fights who as long as someone gets they’re face kicked in. Now I’m gonna watch best of the best then go bully some nerds
Their* good lad
Ah here. You just deleted my comment for the second time. It in no way contains any content that violates the rules of this site so I’ll ask again why was it deleted?
I figured it out. John is Anti-Craic.
Im going to ask it again sure, when is mcgregor fighting the undertaker? and why is that question a violation of this sites rules?
Maybe John only likes funny jokes.
Maybe man, jokes on him though, looks like the clown deleting comments regardless if they are slightly childish or not.
Yeah, I agree. These people love deleting comments. I know your pain!
If conor teamed up with the 1 2 3 kid he could hold the world, intercontinental and tag team belts at the same time..
Wait, you think John Kavanagh logs into the 42.ie to delete comments? Really? You do know he just writes the piece and lets the site admins look after everything else don’t you?
Hi John, was Aisling not hoping to get on the Zagreb card?
It will never happen, they just playing mind games with RDA
Sshhhhh!! Don’t tell him!!
Let’s get past RDA first yeah
John should be worried that Conor’s reputation and legacy will be tarnished if he is constantly given the vip treatment and ushered into one championship match after another. No other fighter has ever got this sort of preferential treatment. He needs to face the other aspiring champs who are on the UFC roster like everyone else. Conor has a chance to be one of the all time greats; don’t ruin his legacy by letting UFC allow him to cut corners. As his coach John should at least raise this issue with him.