John Kavanagh has explained the "weird situation" of training with Will Smith in Dubai.
The MMA coach was in the Middle East preparing Conor McGregor for his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier when he was contacted by the actor's people asking if he would be interested in doing a training session with the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star.
Kavanagh said he "couldn't believe it", but was "super impressed" with Smith's fighting skills.
The Dubliner told the BBC: "That was a weird situation that popped up. I was in Dubai training with Conor and his people were on to my people, as they say. Would I be interested in doing a session with Will Smith? Absolutely I would. I'm a massive fan, I couldn't believe it.
"I got to go out to an incredible sport complex out there. I've got a warrior programme and I put him through a typical session. I was super impressed with him.
"Probably my favourite part was that we mimicked an MMA fight. It's done on a punchbag. You'll see it on his documentary - which if he puts me in, I'm probably going to get 10 seconds.
"One of my favourite moments was that between rounds, he goes and sits down, just like a fighter would and I'm sitting by his side just like I would when I'm cornering a fighter and giving him advice in the ear.
"I really try to get them in the mindset of a fighter. While I was doing that, Will was hunched over, very focused, staring into space.
"I thought: 'Oh my god, this is the guy who played Muhammad Ali. This is a scene from that movie.'
"It was one or two seconds of: 'What the hell is going on with my life! How did this happen? Fresh Prince of Bel Air here, Muhammad Ali and he's tuned into everything I'm saying.'
"We had a great workout, we had a bit of fun afterwards. I didn't tell anyone about it - so when it went up, straight after, my mother's ringing me, my sister's ringing me."
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