Coach Kavanagh: McGregor’s hands are better than ever following Mayweather fight

There's still no date set for when Conor McGregor will return to the Octagon, but his opponents better watch out when he does. According to his head coach John Kavanagh, McGregor is going to be deadlier than ever thanks to the time he spent training for the Floyd Mayweather boxing bout.

“When would an MMA guy have a chance to take six months just to focus on one aspect of MMA?" Kavanagh said during an interview with The Daily Star. "Never is the answer, they’re always trying to work on everything. But when he does return to the Octagon, his hands are going to be a lot better than what they were. And I’m excited to see that.”

Of course, the criticisms with McGregor have never been towards his striking abilities. McGregor's ground game, on the other hand, has been questioned by a number of people, especially after his rear naked choke loss to Nate Diaz in their first fight. But according to Kavanagh, the striking focus hasn't hurt Conor's rolling ability.

“You know, I was rolling with him two weeks ago and I was wondering how his jiu-jitsu would be,” Kavanagh said. “And I was very annoyed that he took my back and choked me. So he hasn’t lost too much there. Of course, he has to tighten up there before he goes to fight in the Octagon again. But he really does love grappling.

"Even in the lead up to the Mayweather fight, he would still kind of ask you about wrestling or jiu-jitsu, and he’d say, ‘hey, look at this’. I know it’s in his head all the time although he wasn’t physically training it. I know mentally he’s still thinking about it."

Let's hope he's also not backsliding in that other area of weakness: cardio, which you could attribute to the majority of troubles he's had in his combat sports career.