John Kavanagh claims that he prefers Conor McGregor to stay in MMA rather than taking up boxing to fight Manny Pacquiao

Conor McGregor’s long time coach John Kavanagh wants the Irishman to add more feathers in his already illustrious MMA career rather than joining boxing to face Manny Pacquiao.

Kavanagh believes that McGregor is standing on the doorstep of brilliance in MMA and should not ponder on the thought of joining boxing. Kavanagh has been a long time coach for the Irishman since 2008 and speaking to ESPN he shared his thoughts on him pursuing boxing to enter the ring with Pacquiao as he would want the Mystic Mac to stay in MMA.

“I’m gonna pick MMA, all day, every day. (Floyd) Mayweather one was a great experience… If he gets the (Manny) Pacquiao fight, I will be one of those memes that it’s smiling but you see a tear coming down. I will high five him and wish him the best as he prepares for it. But I think we are on the path, on the journey to doing something extraordinary in mixed martial arts and that is where I would like him to go. Stick with MMA,” said Kavanagh.

Over the years McGregor has shared his desire to box against the PacMan. Also in a recent podcast Weighing In McGregor revealed that the talks of a fight happening with Pacquiao are gaining momentum.

McGregor’s coach Phil Sutcliffe also confirms the rumours as he shares that there is a good 85-90 percent chance of ‘The Notorious’ going up against the legendary Philippine boxer in the second quarter of this year.

“85-90 per cent chance, maybe April, March. March, April or May. I’d like him to be in a boxing camp for at least two months, eight weeks. I mean, he’s fit now, he’s going to train straight after the fight. He’s gonna take probably a week off,” Sutcliffe told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.

Pacquiao last fought against Keith Thurman in 2019 where he defeated the American and claimed the WBA (Super) welterweight title and also made history as the oldest boxer (40 years) to claim the welterweight title.

Conor McGregor, on the other hand, has had an experience before in professional boxing which was not so good for the Irishman as he went up against legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather. He lost the match on TKO in the tenth round.