Conor McGregor hints his coach was to blame for Khabib loss and reveals problems in camp with game plan and tactics
Irish star blasted his 'non-commitment' before UFC 229 and admitted the his team's approach was too defensive
CONOR McGREGOR admitted his “game plan and tactics” against Khabib Nurmagomedov were wrong, regretting his defensive approach.
McGregor, 30, was made to submit for the second time in his UFC career when arch rival Nurmagomedov, also 30, beat the Irish star at UFC 229 in October.
Seven months on from defeat and The Notorious opened up to philanthropist Tony Robbins and conceded the “whole approach” his team took before the Nurmagomedov fight was wrong blasting his own commitment.
McGregor said: “My whole approach in that camp, the injuries and the non-commitment, the game plan and even the tactics.
“I’m an attacker. And my attack defends. But in this camp, for some reason, the entire focus was defence, defence.
“So in every round of the training, I would have my back against the fence. I would have my back on the floor. I would always put myself in a vulnerable position.
As the camp went on, I just became defensive, defensive. That’s never what I did. It still irritates me to this day.
Conor McGregor on training for Khabib Nurmagomedov
“As the camp went on, I just became defensive, defensive. That’s never what I did. It still irritates me to this day because the training partners I had – I trained with heavy people, 90-plus kilos.
“When we were wrestling, I broke my foot. It’s like a horse. Like a f***ing horse. I’ve got another American, Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, that trains with me and was 200 pounds. They’re big, big boys.”
McGregor, who made a career from breaking down his opponents physiologically on the way to becoming a two-weight champ, insisted he has learnt from his mistakes.
The 30-year-old hinted he was influenced by outside opinions on Nurmagomedov’s feared wrestling and The Notorious revealed he returned to his own “internal dialogue” in training.
McGregor added: “Since the fight, I’ve gone back to train with them and went with my internal dialogue, not the external dialogue.
“The dialogue of that I can’t grapple with this man because he’s a Russian sambo guy and he’s wrestled bears since he was a kid and all this bulls***.
“That’s external. I let the external infiltrate the internal filter into the fight. But after the fight, I went back and trained with these people, and I attacked. I mauled them.”
McGregor added the “war is not over” between himself and UFC lightweight king Nurmagomedov and goaded his rival for “running” from the rematch.
