MCGREGOR’S MAN One-One with Conor’s Coach

UFC superstar Conor McGregor is one of the most exciting and skilful athletes to ever compete in MMA, drawing the biggest ever pay-per-views and some of the most memorable knockouts in the sport’s history. Conor’s head coach, John Kavanagh, was in Australia recently to promote Alta — his in-gym MMA training program. So, the powers that be at MAXIM decided to throw me into one of his sessions… and possibly be a stand-in punching bag, if he needed one.

“Have you done this sort of thing before,” asks Kavanagh in a soft Irish accent. I tell him I’ve done lots of boxing but the grappling stuff is all a bit foreign to me. “Don’t worry,” he assures me. “This will be fun.” After a five minute warm-up, we start practising