JOE caught up with Ireland’s premier MMA coach, John Kavanagh, to discuss his last appearance at UFC: Nottingham with Gunni Nelson, life in Iceland and this weekend’s UFC: London.
The last time we spoke to John Kavanagh he was criss-crossing his way across Europe to get to Iceland to help his star pupil Gunnar Nelson prepare for UFC: Nottingham last September. Nottingham was John’s second walk to the Octagon with a fighter.
UFC: Nottingham
The night in Nottingham couldn’t have gone any better. Both Gunni and John were quoted afterwards describing the outcome as almost perfect – Gunni got the victory and neither fighter got hurt. So much had been made of Gunni’s grappling prowess that when he flashed a furious head-kick that narrowly missed the dome of DeMarques Johnson in the opening seconds of the fight, everybody sat up and figured there was more to Gunni than a ground game.
John’s prediction for the fight almost came to pass. At the end of the last interview John forecast a rear naked choke finish at 4.10 in the first round. Clearly, Gunni was in a rush as he dispatched Johnson via rear naked choke at 3.34 in the first round.
Celebrations?
You’d expect after such an emphatic performance that a fighter might like to savour the moment but with the UFC that moment can be fleeting.
“The UFC is such a slick, well-oiled machine that they’re in and out. You show up when you’re told, you go through all the event stuff, then after the fight you go back to the hotel and hang out, get to talk to some people and the next morning they’re gone.”
So if the UFC didn’t provide a platform to celebrate surely there were wild scenes back in Iceland?
“We were back in Iceland on the Monday training. Society is a little different in Iceland. They don’t go for hero worship. People would smile and say ‘congratulations’ on the street but that’s it. The people in Iceland are very similar to Gunni, very contained.”
The Iceland-Ireland Axis
Those who have been following John and his SBGi fighters will have noticed Iceland is beginning to feature more in fight preparations and not just for Gunni. The MMA conspiracy theorists might think it’s a grand plan by John to relocate to Iceland but on the contrary; it’s simply a change being as good as a rest for a workaholic coach.
“Before last August I had trained every day in Ireland for the previous 17 years. I’d been away briefly to compete or train and then with fighters for events. But apart from that the longest I’d been out of the country in that period was for maybe 10 days.
“Obviously I was building up the gym and building up the fight team and both of those have proved to be very successful. It got to the point though where I needed to take a bit of a mental break from Ireland more so than a holiday.”
John explains further the reason for heading north.
“Then around the same time I was thinking of heading away for a break an e-mail popped up from the UFC offering Gunni a fight. I figured I’d to go to Iceland to help Gunni prepare and that would serve as a break from Ireland and allow us to get the work done.”
So is Iceland better than Ireland?
“It’s not that it’s better, it’s just different. Mentally and physically it’s a great place to train fighters. It’s also much healthier. For example, there’s no Burger King or McDonalds in Iceland. You can walk into the equivalent of Eurospar here and there’s a section for protein shakes.
“If you go out to eat there’s always plenty of healthier food options than you’d get in Ireland. The atmosphere is slower as well so there’s nothing to get stressed about, which allows the fighters to just live and breathe the training.”
Next Up
Just like UFC events, the match-making process is pretty slick also. An outsider might think the process of making fights involves lots of phone conversations and documents being e-mailed back and forth. Not so, as John explains.
“There’s no big process or sitting around the boardroom table to hammer out the deal. An e-mail pops up in the inbox with a date and an opponent and you say yes or no.”
Like his UFC debut, Gunni’s opponent in London will not be the guy he was originally offered to fight. Justin Edwards of TUF 13 fame was offered first but had to pull out due to injury. Edwards’ replacement will be MMA veteran Jorge Santiago. Having won Grand Prix’s and titles all over the world across his 12 years and 35 MMA fights, Santiago will be a much sterner test.
John with Gunni Nelson
“No disrespect to Justin Edwards but Jorge Santiago is a much tougher fight and a much better challenge for Gunni.
“Santiago had a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu before Gunni had even heard of the sport. He had about 20 fights before Gunni made his MMA debut. If you look at this guy’s experience he’s been fighting for ever on all the big shows around the world and this is his third time to get asked into the UFC. So yeah, it’s a much more exciting fight.”
The move up in level of opponent and to the main card in London won’t over awe Gunni or his coach.
“We don’t really concentrate or train specifically for opponents. We’ll have a look at the guy at the beginning of preparation but we mainly concentrate on getting ourselves better than preparing for an opponent.”
You can check out John’s video blogs of the days leading up to UFC: London below and you can follow him on Facebook.
Team Effort
John wanted to thank the Irish Strength Institute, BigShots Nutrition and Dave Mullins of Conquer Mental Skills for all their help and support with fighter preparation. He also wanted to point out that the Iceland adventure wouldn’t have been possible without a dedicated team back at base in Ireland.
“I’d like to especially thank the coaches that I have at SBGi in Dublin. Thanks to them the place doesn’t need me to be there for everything to run smoothly. If I didn’t have them to free up my time we’d be missing out on some big opportunities. They’re a huge part this whole story.”
UFC London: Barao v McDonald will take place at Wembley Arena in London, England, February 16, 2013. IT will be broadcast in Ireland on ESPN from 2000. The Preliminary Card will be shown on the UFC Facebook page.
OFFICIAL FIGHT CARD
Main Card (ESPN for viewers in Ireland)
- Renan Barao v Michael McDonald
- Cub Swanson v Dustin Poirier
- Jimi Manuwa v Cyrille Diabate
- Gunnar Nelson v Jorge Santiago
- James Te-Huna v Ryan Jimmo
- Che Mills v Matthew Riddle
Preliminary Card (Facebook)
- Terry Etim v Renee Forte
- Paul Sass v Danny Castillo
- Andy Ogle v Josh Grispi
- Tom Watson v Stanislav Nedkov
- Vaughan Lee v Motonobu Tezuka
- Phil Harris v Ulysses Gomez
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