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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Kevin Taylor

John Kavanagh reveals what he heard from Conor McGregor's hotel room hours out from fight

Conor McGregor is firmly in the zone ahead of his scrap with Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.

Preparations for the big fight seem to have run smoothly for the Dublin brawler and the McGregor camp have full confidence in their man.

The 32-year-old looks as eager as ever to return to the octagon and his coach John Kavanagh gave an insight into McGregor's motivated mindset as he counts down to his cage comeback.

He tweeted: Being in the room next to Conor day before fight and can hear him smashing up a bag for an hour.

"A couple of WATAAAAs as he drives his heal into poor ol Bob on the ground too."

The Notorious has already offered his traditional 'Mystic Mac' prediction ahead of the fight.

The Dublin scrapper claimed he will finish the job inside 60 seconds, although he did row back on those comments slightly in yesterday's press conference.

When they last clashed in 2014, the fight lasted just one minute and 46 seconds as McGregor recorded a quick TKO win.

Conor McGregor poses on the scale during the UFC 257 weigh-in (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

But Kavanagh reckons this weekend's fight will bear more of a resemblance to the lightweight title win against Eddie Alvarez in 2016.

McGregor completely dominated the Philadelphia native at Madison Square Garden on that occasion and finished him off midway through the second round to achieve his dream of becoming a two-weight UFC champion.

Straight Blast Gym head coach Kavanagh told ESPN's Ariel Helwani that he expects the result to be decided within the first 60 seconds, although he acknowledges that the fight may last longer than that.

"I don't expect a war," Kavanagh said.

"But I find it hard to see it under 60 seconds because he is such a warrior and I just think the extra bulk, he can take a bit more.

"But I think it'll look like the Eddie fight - there'll be a beauty to it. It'll be perfect.

John Kavanagh and Conor McGregor (Instagram/ JohnKavanagh)

"I can see it going a similar length of time. It's gonna take a few knockdowns, it's gonna take a few exchanges, and we need to be prepared for that.

"So I'm gonna say a similar kind of distance. I will echo Conor in saying I think it'll be decided in 60 seconds.

"It's going to be somewhat obvious, the difference in skill. There's no nice way to say that."

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