Coach Owen Roddy has revealed details of the Conor McGregor camp ahead of his UFC 246 fight with Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
Conor McGregor will go up against Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone in Las Vegas on January 2018, in what will be the Irishman’s first fight since he lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov via fourth round submission in October 2018.
And trainer Owen Roddy is confident that fans will see the Conor McGregor they once ‘fell in love with’.
‘It’s Go Time’
Roddy highlighted the difference in the Irishman’s approach and explained there is a heavy focus on strength and conditioning.
Speaking to MMA Fighting, he said: “Yeah – we’re back,”
“We’re in camp now, so it’s go time.”
“The one thing Conor has been constantly doing is working on his strength and conditioning – he’s constantly staying in shape and he’s constantly eating clean – and you can see that straight off the bat.”
“Now it’s time for us to execute a game plan and go in and do it on the night.”
“I’m very excited to be back working with him, and I’m very excited that he’s back fighting in the UFC.”
Regimented
Details recently emerged of McGregor’s diet plan in the lead-up to UFC 246, and Roddy has now revealed that the camp is much more regimented than it was before his defeat to Khabib. The trainer suggested that inconsistency in camp was a contributing factor to the loss.
He says the training regime this time is ‘perfect’ though, and believes time-management will go a long way in getting the Dubliner back to his best.
“The training camp is structured way better,” Roddy said.
“The last camp was just a bit sporadic. We didn’t know what time we were training at. Sometimes it was very late at night, sometimes it was early in the morning and nobody really knew.”
“Even though we were making all of these sessions, I don’t think that’s good for you when he doesn’t even know what time he’s going to train at, just doing it off feel.”
“For the past couple of months it’s been very regimented.”
“We’re training at 11 and 7 every day,”
“We’re doing strength and conditioning, whether it’s in the morning or evening, and then doing a technical session and it’s perfect.”
“Now, he’s in tip-top shape and now we’re just focusing on the game plan – coming up with a good game plan and going in and executing it.”
Hungry Again
Roddy has expressed confidence that the McGregor seen UFC 246 will be similar to the one which took the UFC by storm, after what has been a difficult two years for the 31-year-old.
He said: “I think it’s great seeing Conor back enjoying what he’s doing, that’s the more important thing for me, for everybody and for Conor.”
“You can see it in him – he’s enjoying it. I don’t know, he’s had a crazy couple of years man…I don’t know how he copes…nobody knows how he deals with what he deals with because there is so much…I can only imagine.”
“Now he’s after sorting everything out and he’s back doing what he loves to do.”
“I think when you start to see some footage of him training, he starts to do his interviews and he starts building the fight, you’re going to see the old Conor back…I can see that already.”
“When people see that, they’re going to say, ‘That’s the Conor we fell in love with.”
“He has that hunger again.”
“A hungry, dedicated and motivated Conor McGregor is a scary dude.”
It’s not long now until Notorious steps back into the Octagon to see if he can record his first UFC win since he beat Eddie Alvarez in 2016.
(Featured image source: Instagram/ Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone)