Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh admitted he had his doubts over whether the UFC star would rediscover his motivation following his defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
And while he has revealed the two drifted apart in the aftermath of the defeat, with McGregor throwing his energy into pursuits outside the octagon, he insists their relationship is now better than ever.
Kavanagh has been McGregor’s long-term trainer at the Straight Blast Gym in Dublin, in his corner from his rise from obscurity to one of the biggest sports stars on the planet.
The former featherweight and lightweight champion takes on Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 this weekend, his first fight since that chastening submission defeat to Khabib in October 2018.
During his time away, McGregor continued to court controversy while also focusing time and energy on his growing whiskey business.
But Kavanagh says the two are closer than ever once again with ‘Notorious’ fully motivated on the task at hand.
"We drifted a bit; he had a lot going on in his life with his whiskey business and other things going on, and my team was getting busy with a lot of new fighters joining," Kavanagh said.
"That was a natural thing that happened but the last couple of months have been fantastic. I feel we are tighter now than we have ever been so I'm feeling good.
"He kept showing up and I wondered whether he would be able to do the type of training required again because, let's call a spade a spade, he'd made a lot of money and it's hard to go running when you wake up in silk underwear.
"But he did, he kept training and pushing himself hard and not just talking about, but showing that he wanted to compete at a high level again."
