Way back in 2007, the featherweight champion approached an MMA gym in Crumlin, Ireland to pick a fight with Owen Roddy.
Unknown to McGregor, the gym was owned by his future coach John Kavanagh, an acclaimed MMA fighter that would go on to be one of the finest coaches the sport has ever seen.
Roddy — a renowned MMA fighter at the time — was known for his outstanding submission prowess in the Octagon, but even he found the 19-year-old to be a handful.
Kavanagh watched from afar as the plucky young champ-to-be belted into his prized fighter — and from there he knew he struck gold.
“Owen had been with me a long time — he was my boy — but this new kid moved in a certain way,” Kavanagh told the Irish Independent.
“He was a southpaw, a good boxer and he just had a way about him that made you go: ‘What’s going to happen here?’ And he caught Owen with a good shot and put him down.”
But McGregor wasn’t done yet.
The young southpaw moved on to Aisling Daly, another UFC fighter training at Kavanagh’s gym.
McGregor pinged Daly with precise body shots and brought the future UFC strawweight fighter to the floor with ease.
“It sounds worse than it was. He wasn’t hitting her in the head or anything, but just happened to throw a body shot that hit her in the sweet spot, the solar plexus, and put her down,” Kavanagh said.
The MMA master coach wasn’t too pleased with his future protege’s brutal treatment of his young fighter — so he took to the Octagon himself to teach the young hot-head a lesson inside his own gym.
“I got a little emotional because Ash had been with me a long time and the other guys would look after her. But this new guy had come in and put her down, and my protective nature kicked in.
“I was still fighting at that stage, or hadn’t stopped that long, so I put the gloves on — actually, he has corrected me on that and says it was bare knuckles.
“I held him down and beat the CRAP out of him, without putting too fine a point on it.
“I kept hitting him in the body until he couldn’t breathe and then I looked at him: ‘What’s it going to be? We can train or we can fight?’ And he was OK from the next day.”
What followed is history. McGregor and Kavanagh teamed up to form one of the greatest partnerships ever seen in the UFC, claiming the featherweight championship and flooring the infamous Nate Diaz against all odds in an alien weight division.
Their relationship is now something most fighters aspire to have with their coach — and it all started with a brutal bare-knuckle beating.
Really cool right? Bare knuckle fight because some young gun was causing trouble.
EDIT: Masked profanity in the story. Edited it out.
Unknown to McGregor, the gym was owned by his future coach John Kavanagh, an acclaimed MMA fighter that would go on to be one of the finest coaches the sport has ever seen.
Roddy — a renowned MMA fighter at the time — was known for his outstanding submission prowess in the Octagon, but even he found the 19-year-old to be a handful.
Kavanagh watched from afar as the plucky young champ-to-be belted into his prized fighter — and from there he knew he struck gold.
“Owen had been with me a long time — he was my boy — but this new kid moved in a certain way,” Kavanagh told the Irish Independent.
“He was a southpaw, a good boxer and he just had a way about him that made you go: ‘What’s going to happen here?’ And he caught Owen with a good shot and put him down.”
But McGregor wasn’t done yet.
The young southpaw moved on to Aisling Daly, another UFC fighter training at Kavanagh’s gym.
McGregor pinged Daly with precise body shots and brought the future UFC strawweight fighter to the floor with ease.
“It sounds worse than it was. He wasn’t hitting her in the head or anything, but just happened to throw a body shot that hit her in the sweet spot, the solar plexus, and put her down,” Kavanagh said.
The MMA master coach wasn’t too pleased with his future protege’s brutal treatment of his young fighter — so he took to the Octagon himself to teach the young hot-head a lesson inside his own gym.
“I got a little emotional because Ash had been with me a long time and the other guys would look after her. But this new guy had come in and put her down, and my protective nature kicked in.
“I was still fighting at that stage, or hadn’t stopped that long, so I put the gloves on — actually, he has corrected me on that and says it was bare knuckles.
“I held him down and beat the CRAP out of him, without putting too fine a point on it.
“I kept hitting him in the body until he couldn’t breathe and then I looked at him: ‘What’s it going to be? We can train or we can fight?’ And he was OK from the next day.”
What followed is history. McGregor and Kavanagh teamed up to form one of the greatest partnerships ever seen in the UFC, claiming the featherweight championship and flooring the infamous Nate Diaz against all odds in an alien weight division.
Their relationship is now something most fighters aspire to have with their coach — and it all started with a brutal bare-knuckle beating.
Really cool right? Bare knuckle fight because some young gun was causing trouble.
EDIT: Masked profanity in the story. Edited it out.
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