Coach: Alvarez Won’t Be As Tough As RDA

It’s well known that Conor McGregor’s initial path to becoming a simultaneous two-weight UFC champion was against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196. However, before McGregor could fight him, dos Anjos pulled out of the fight due to a foot injury, which led to McGregor fighting Nate Diaz at the event.

Now, the current UFC featherweight champion will be fighting current UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez this weekend at UFC 205, where he will attempt to fulfill his goal of being a two division UFC champion. McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh recently spoke with MMAJunkie to promote the fight and commented on the incidents that have led up to UFC 205.

According to Kavanagh, McGregor fighting Alvarez is actually the easier option to achieving their objective.

“I think Alvarez is a little bit more straightforward. Dos Anjos obviously has a world-class submission game on the ground,” Kavanagh said. “Alvarez is more basic on the ground. He’s just going to hold you there and throw some shots, whereas dos Anjos has very slick jiu-jitsu. In other respects, they’re both quite similar in that they’re both physically similar, and similar style. A couple punches, then try to get a takedown. But I think Eddie is slightly the easier fight because he’s orthodox and doesn’t have quite the submission game as dos Anjos.

While McGregor had previously predicted a first round stoppage against Alvarez at the event, Kavanagh thinks that it could go into the second round and then McGregor will finish him.

“Conor has range, he can hold him on the outside and then if Eddie does close the distance, yes, he’s probably going to have a small weight advantage, but not the same weight advantage as Nate did,” Kavanagh said. “But this is going to be a range war, and Eddie’s losing that one. I can see a similar fight to (Chad) Mendes. I think Eddie will use up a lot of energy in Round 1 trying to pin Conor to the fence. I think late in Round 2, the left hand will land, and that will be all she wrote.”

UFC 205 will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2016, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. This event will be the first UFC event hosted in New York City and the first UFC event hosted in the State of New York since 1995. The main card airs on PPV at 10 p.m. ET and the prelims air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and UFC Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. ET.