The brashness of Conor McGregor radiates all the way to the people behind him with his coach, John Kavanagh, seeing his boy's upcoming and debut fight in the lightweight division weighing heavily in their favor.
Kavanagh is so confident "The Notorious" will pull through it, believing that McGregor will overwhelm Rafael dos Anjos in just one round, Fox Sports reported.
But all that depends on the lightweight champion's game plan. According to Kavanagh, if dos Anjos opts to test the striking game against McGregor, then such will turn out to be a costly one.
McGregor is expected to resort to his patented offensive game since he will be giving up a lot in weight. Like most of his opponents in the featherweight division, it would perhaps be best for dos Anjos to resort to the grappling game and make sure the Irishman is unable to launch his offensive.
But if dos Anjos is willing to risk it, the fight could see a fast close in the first round alone. McGregor is indeed at a disadvantage with a higher weight class, but he has been known to pull off the impossible.
In fact, that is the reason why Dana White and the UFC allowed him to move up and test the lightweight division without vacating the title because they believe he has the potential to be a two-division champion — a first in the UFC if ever.
Kavanagh believes that even if dos Anjos makes it through the first round with the striking game, he will eventually turn to the grappling technique. And once that happens, he believes it will be the perfect opportunity to see how McGregor is able to handle the situation at a different division.
The last man to try and ground McGregor was Chad Mendes. Mendes almost succeeded but made a mistake when he was unable to lock his guillotine choke hold in the second round at UFC 189 last year.
Despite McGregor winning that one, it was one of the hard-fought matches in his career. Dos Anjos may want to look into that one before they both face off at UFC 197 this coming March 5.
