Conor McGregor possible UFC opponents named by coach Kavanagh including Gaethje as star considers ending retirement
CONOR McGREGOR’S coach John Kavanagh is still dreaming of three more fights for the Irish superstar – even if he is currently retired.
Dublin’s Straight Blast Gym boss has been inundated with questions about McGregor’s third retirement in four years, with fans hoping the 31-year-old will again reverse his decision.
But when asked on Instagram Live if his famous pupil is sincere about not fighting again, Kavanagh dealt his followers some bad news and revealed The Notorious cannot be convinced.
Kavanagh said: “Yes, he is [retired], as far as I can tell. That’s what he said, isn’t it?
“I can’t convince Conor to do s***. Conor will tell Conor what he’s gonna do.
“And who knows? Who knows what’s gonna happen in the future? But as for now, he’s retired.”
McGregor announced last month he was walking away from the UFC, having been left frustrated he was frozen out of the lightweight title picture with interim champ Justin Gaethje set to face Khabib Nurmagomedov in September.
But Kavanagh named lightweight pair Nurmagomedov and Gaethje as well as old rival Nate Diaz as the three opponents he wishes The Notorious could still fight.
He said: “Three fights I would like to see, I’ll give you my top three – would be Gaethje, I would love that fight, it would be awesome.
“Diaz, the trilogy, and Khabib rematch. They would be the three fights I would be very interested in.”
McGregor suffered his first UFC loss at the hands of Diaz in 2016, but avenged the result five months later in a five round thriller.
The Irishman was beaten by lightweight king Khabib in 2018 but a post-fight brawl has left their rivalry very much running and the UFC were keen to stage a lucrative rematch.
And Gaethje was the man McGregor was in talks with to face this year, until the coronavirus pandemic KO’d the headliner.
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Kavanagh said: “It was close to being done. It’s kind of sad now that it didn’t happen. We have obviously the coronavirus and how everything went with the world.
“I think we could’ve been getting ready for that fight any week now if things hadn’t have happened the way they did.
“But here we are, so all we can do is speculate.”