Conor's coach is saying some sensible things (although I believe he didn't want Conor to do the rematch):
Cardio easier to fix than a skill problem? We'll see. It will be interesting.
Quote:http://www.the42.ie/john-kavanagh-column...=shortlink
When we got back to the changing room after the fight, a rematch with Diaz was already being discussed. A defence of Conor’s featherweight belt was also mentioned, but as the hours drifted by, the frustration of not doing himself justice began to take hold and grate.
Conor chased this rematch. That’s how it has come about. He’s much more concerned about trying to give a perfect representation of his ability than he is about material things like belts or money. That’s just a fact. Money is certainly not a motivating factor anymore because he has already made plenty of it.
Conor believes that the last fight didn’t accurately reflect the skills and ability he possesses, so he’s eager to address that. He ended up harassing UFC president Dana White and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta on a daily basis for a rematch. This is the fight that’s of most interest to him right now.
I doubt that any non-biased observer could look at the first round of that 5 March bout at the MGM Grand and not score it in Conor’s favour. For me, we saw the technical difference between the two fighters in that opening frame. The difference in the second round was down to cardio, and a cardio issue is much easier to rectify than a skill one.
Going into that second round, the gameplan was straightforward: repeat what had happened in the first round… for five rounds, if necessary. However, that’s not how it ultimately played out.
Conor’s cardio wasn’t as it should have been, but there was certainly no complacency. We didn’t train any differently for the fight. I believe it was more a case of there being a strategy error i.e. trying to stop a bigger man who’s known for having a strong chin with every single punch.
When you’re landing punches on any opponent, it gets tiring. There’s no two ways about that. With a strategy adjustment, the fight is going to play out in a similar manner to that first round, but this time it will continue throughout the contest. I do believe Conor is the more skilful fighter and the first round was evidence of that. But we cannot make the same mistake by trying to remove his head with every single punch.
It was a fight that was set up on short notice and it didn’t go our way, but there are certainly no regrets about going ahead with it when turning it down would have been very understandable. The entire process has been a tremendous learning experience.
If Conor had gone through his entire career without pitting his skillset against that type of opponent, there would have been no window for learning. The Jose Aldo fight in December was iconic, it was beautiful to watch and all that, but we didn’t really take away a whole lot from it.
With this one, I feel we’ve yielded months of lesson plans. It has really reignited the fire in both Conor and myself. We’re excited about training for it and we’ve made some good plans which involve some adjustments, including spending a little bit more time out in Las Vegas. We’ll make some minor changes to the training to get used to that particular opponent and we won’t be overly-reliant on Conor’s left hand to secure the result.
That was Conor’s 22nd professional fight but I probably learned more about him from it than I had in his entire career to date. We had no excuses whatsoever for the loss. Second best on the night, simple as that. It’s gone. Learn from it and move on to the next one.
Cardio easier to fix than a skill problem? We'll see. It will be interesting.
