The new UFC interim featherweight champion was unable to do any live MMA sparring or wrestling in training camp due to a knee injury, his coach John Kavanagh told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour.
"I've gotta be honest, when we were walking out to this fight it was in the back of my mind that we haven't done a single round of live wrestling," Kavanagh said. "I had my eyebrows raised and thought, let's see what happens."
"Really the first round of full wrestling was done in that fight," Kavanagh said. "His timing a little bit on the sprawl and dealing with the shot was not quite there. It started getting better as the fight went on. Do I think a rematch if it does happen down the line would be different? Yes, for both of them."
Kavanagh didn't want to go into the details of McGregor's knee injury, but he did say it was basically fully healed about two weeks out from the fight. They still didn't do any full-speed wrestling or MMA sparring, just in case. The only kind of wrestling training McGregor got was at a slow, flow pace.
"That was the first full test on the knee and he flew through it," Kavanagh said. "He was able to deal with some oppositions. There were some scrambles, there was a lot of wrestling and it held up and there's nothing wrong. So we're 100 percent confident that it's perfect now."
When Aldo withdrew from the bout, Kavanagh thought that it might be wise for McGregor to do the same considering the high stakes. But McGregor would have none of it.
"When I spoke to Conor and I saw this absolutely unshakeable confidence, I knew it was the right decision," Kavanagh said. "I knew it didn't matter who it was going to be.
"For Conor to have done what he did and accepted that change, I think that showed a championship mentality."
LINK: Coach: Conor McGregor did no live wrestling in training camp before UFC 189 due to knee injury - MMA Fighting
