Conor McGregor’s coach hints at future plans as former UFC champion bulks up in training

The ex-featherweight and lightweight title holder has also fought at welterweight

Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh has admitted that he does not think the former featherweight and lightweight champion will compete in either division ever again.

McGregor ran through the UFC’s featherweight division en route to winning the title in 2015, before adding the lightweight belt one year later to become the promotion’s first ever dual-weight champion.

In between those title wins, McGregor traded victories with Nate Diaz at welterweight, before returning to the weight class in early 2020 to stop Donald Cerrone within 40 seconds.

Since beating Cerrone, McGregor has fought twice in the UFC, both times against Dustin Poirier at lightweight. The “Diamond”, whom McGregor knocked out at featherweight in 2014, KOed the Irishman in January 2021, five months before “Notorious” suffered a broken leg in the rivals’ trilogy bout.

While McGregor, 33, has seemed set on regaining the lightweight title this year, his coach dismissed the notion.

“You might have seen some extreme pictures of Conor from years ago when he was fighting in the lower weight classes in the UFC,” Kavanagh said in a recent Instagram live video.

“They were very extreme and they were all done under the eyes of a medical professional. Even he himself wouldn’t ever go back to those weight classes now.

“It’s not healthy, and it’s not for the long-term. I would encourage you to look at his more recent pictures he’s putting up on Instagram. Look how big and strong that looks. That’s what it is to be a fighter: get big, get strong, and be healthy for life.”

Charles Oliveira holds the UFC lightweight title and is set to defend it against Justin Gaethje this May, though the Brazilian expressed his desire to put the gold on the line against McGregor instead.

Meanwhile, rising lightweight contender Islam Makhachev – a childhood friend of McGregor’s rival Khabib Nurmagomedov – is in action this Saturday as he fights Bobby Green.

Dagestani Makhachev is seen as lightweight champion-in-waiting by many fans and was scheduled to face Beneil Dariush this weekend, but an injury to the American has led to compatriot Green stepping in on short notice – just two weeks after earning a decision win at UFC 271.