Conor McGregor’s conditioning coach: ‘The camp has been flawless’

Conditioning coach Colin Byrne and Conor McGregor. Picture courtesy of Dave Fogarty

Former two-weight world champion Conor McGregor has had “flawless” preparation for his UFC return, his conditioning coach has said.

McGregor and his team have spent the last year preparing for the bout with number 2 ranked lightweight Dustin Poirier and the pair finally go toe-to-toe this weekend in Abu Dhabi.

The pair are no strangers to each other with their first meeting at UFC 178 just over six years ago with McGregor defeating the American inside the first round.

Poirier has often mentioned the Irishman’s mind games before the fight played a big part in his defeat.

However, he is now adamant he has grown as a fighter and his recent performances would echo his opinion and he fully believes he has all the tools to defeat the returning Dubliner.

For McGregor, the fight, which takes place in the early hours of Sunday morning Irish time, will be his first appearance since defeating Donald Cerrone 12 months ago.

Ahead of this weekend’s UAE bout, McGregor has spent much of this camp in Portugal at the McGregor FAST HQ and conditioning coach Colin Byrne says everything has been “flawless”.

“We had been training all last year waiting on a fight. Finally, we got the Dustin fight, so we spent 10 weeks in Shinobi in Lagos, which is now McGregor FAST HQ. It was perfect there,” Byrne said.

“For me it was great to finally have a big part of the preparation for this fight in Lagos. The locals were happy to know he was in the town but never bother us and let us get on with the work. The atmosphere amongst the team was great and it was a great start to the process.”

McGregor has turned a lot of heads recently with his new muscular physical appearance in comparison to previous fights, and Byrne says part of the reason is to increase the 22-4 Irishman’s explosive power.

“Conor looks different physically as a result of the hard work he has put in over the past few years on the McGregor FAST program. We added in all body weightlifting routines that lend well to the sport and specifically to increase his explosive power and endurance power. What you see now is the results of his training, rather than training for aesthetics.”

Current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov announced at the weekend he will be watching the fight with interest, with the winner touted for a title shot later in the year.