Gunnar Nelson: Conor McGregor needs “some space”

While Conor McGregor has refrained from doing interviews regarding his ongoing standoff with the UFC that saw him pulled from his UFC 200 rematch with Nate Diaz on July 9th, Gunnar Nelson has been able to provide some insight into how McGregor is doing.

While SBG Ireland head coach John Kavanagh revealed recently that McGregor’s next fight will likely take place at either UFC 201 or 202, there has been no official word from the UFC on when the featherweight champ will be fighting.

While fielding questions from media members, Nelson was asked about McGregor’s training, which has been focused around a potential rematch with Nate Diaz.

BloodyElbow has the transcription:

“I haven’t trained much with Conor since his last fight, but we did a week in Iceland,” Nelson said, answering questions from the international media. “We always focus quite a bit on grappling, so I think his focus will be as it has been. Maybe focus on some specific things for his opponent, who is going to be again, bigger and longer. Some tactical strategies maybe for him specifically.”

“Also, I think he needs some time to train. Like we’ve seen, he ‘retired’ that other day because he felt like he wasn’t getting the space to train. There was too many media obligations and things like that. If that’s how he feels, he definitely needs to get time to train on his own, and get some space.”

Nelson’s next fight is May 8th in Rotterdam against Albert Tumenov.