Conor McGregor’s striking coach has predicted fans will “see the old Conor back” when he fights Donald Cerrone in his long-awaited UFC comeback.
‘The Notorious’ will fight Cerrone in Las Vegas on January 18, making his first return to the octagon since being choked out by Khabib Nurmagomedov in October last year.
And McGregor’s Straight Blast Gym trainer Owen Roddy has promised fight fans they will see the Irishman back to the form that made him one of the UFC’s star names.
“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,” Roddy told MMA Fighting .
“I can see that already. When people see that, they’re going to say, ‘That’s the Conor we fell in love with.’
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“He has that hunger again. A hungry, dedicated and motivated Conor McGregor is a scary dude.”
Roddy says McGregor’s training camp ahead of the Cerrone fight has been much more regimented than it was leading up to his defeat to Nurmagomedov.
He said: “The training camp is structured way better.
“The last camp was just a bit sporadic. We didn’t know what time we were training at.
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“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.
“And you can see that he’s reaping the benefits and rewards already from that.”
McGregor will target his first win in the cage for more than three years when he fights American Cerrone next month. The Dubliner’s last victory was against Eddie Alvarez in November 2016.
