Conor McGregor was searching for his first victory of the season as his bantamweight fighter Carlos Vera faced Team Chandler‘s Brad Katona in the season’s newest episode.
McGregor suffered his fifth consecutive defeat as a coach, as his own SBG teammate Katona won a unanimous decision against Vera. Chandler believed Katona accomplished enough to win both rounds, while McGregor opposed and asked the judges to order a sudden death round.
At the end of the fight, the Irishman addressed Chandler: “It’s five rounds for a world title. You ever had one of those world titles Michael? You ever had a five-rounder?” To which Chandler said, he had been in a lot of them.
Chandler also claimed that they had won both rounds and won’t need another round. In a recent video posted on Twitter, Conor claimed that he and Katona trained together earlier in SBG sports. Team McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh seems to have trained both McGregor and Katona back at SBG.
https://twitter.com/UltimateFighter/status/1673879557953433602
“Brad is also managed by my stable Paradigm Sports and John coaches him so it’s a bit of weird vibe, it is what it is. Fighting for me it’s not personal,” McGregor stated about the conflict of interest before Kavanagh added: “A little bit of drama with Brad Katona ending up on the other team. It feels like it’s a bad movie, but at the end of the day he is here to do a job. There is only one winner in the bantamweight division and Brad is aiming for that to be him.”
Vera had some excellent moments in the bout, but Katona fought his way to victory, much to McGregor’s dismay.
John Kavanagh on competing with Conor McGregor as a coach
John Kavanagh is currently training team McGregor in the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter. In a recent episode of the TV show, Carlos Vera fought Brad Katona in a bantamweight bout. The match ended in a unanimous win for Team Chandler as they elevated their win streak to 5-0. McGregor was quite unhappy with the results.
John Kavanagh was a former coach to Team Chandler’s Brad Katona and Conor McGregor himself in the SBG sports days. Kavanagh had very well known about Katona coming in for TUF but was shocked when he was picked up by the opponent’s team. In a recent development, Conor McGregor’s head coach, John Kavanagh, refused to prepare Carlos Vera for his match on The Ultimate Fighter against his old student, Brad Katona.
According to The Mirror, Carlos Vera stated, “My opponent Brad Katona is John Kavanagh’s student and before we started he said, ‘I want you guys to know I’m Brad Katona’s coach and I will be stepping for any kind of help that you guys need regarding that fight’,” Despite Katona being a teammate, McGregor chose to coach Vera for the bout, with instructors Owen Roddy and Phil Sutcliffe also assisting the fighter. McGregor stated in a video later posted to Twitter that John coaches him and it’s kind of a weird vibe, it is what it is, fighting for him is not personal.
McGregor will attempt to win his first match on the reality TV show the following week when his unbeaten contender Lee Hammond takes on Team Chandler’s Kurt Holobaugh. Hammond is undefeated in five professional fights, with four of his victories coming through first-round knockout.