Coach John Kavanagh Makes His Prediction for Alvarez vs. McGregor

UFC 205, which will mark the UFC’s long awaited debut in New York City, is now just days away. As this mammoth card draws ever closer, fans, media members, fighters, and other MMA personalities have begun to offer up their predictions on the main event: a lightweight title fight between divisional king Eddie Alvarez and featherweight champ Conor McGregor.

One of the latest MMA notables to offer up a prediction on this massive title fight is McGregor’s head coach, John Kavanagh.

Though Kavanagh expects Alvarez to be the heavier man in the cage, he believes McGregor’s reach advantage will be the deciding factor.

“While I think it’s true to say Eddie will be a little bit heavier than Conor on fight night, he’s going to be dealing with a significant reach disadvantage,” Kavanagh told MMAJunkie.com. “That’s going to be a major difference in this contest”

“Conor has range, he can hold him on the outside and then if Eddie does close the distance, yes, he’s probably going to have a small weight advantage, but not the same weight advantage as Nate [Diaz] did,” the renowned coach continued. “But this is going to be a range war, and Eddie’s losing that one.”

So, with the reach advantage soundly in his fighter’s corner, how does Kavanagh expect this fight to play out?

“I can see a similar fight to [Chad] Mendes [at UFC 189],” he explained. “I think Eddie will use up a lot of energy in Round 1 trying to pin Conor to the fence. I think late in Round 2, the left hand will land and that will be all she wrote.”

This prediction, of course, varies slightly from that of McGregor himself, who promised a first-round knockout at the official press conference for UFC 205 in September.

In addition to its Alvarez vs. McGregor main event, UFC 205 will also feature a welterweight title fight between champ Tyron Woodley and challenger Stephen Thompson, and a strawweight championship fight between divisional ruler Joanna Jedrzejczyk and undefeated challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. The remainder of the main card, finally, will be filled by a middleweight bout between Chris Weidman and Yoel Romero, a welterweight bout between Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Kelvin Gastelum, and a bantamweight showdown between Miesha Tate and Raquel Pennington.

Who are you picking for UFC 205’s six main card fights? Sound off, PENN Nation!