John Kavanagh explains why Conor McGregor can defeat Tyron Woodley

With Conor McGregor currently reigning as a two-division UFC champion, the champ has expressed his desire to also potentially become the first ever three division UFC champion, and move up to welterweight to fight Tyron Woodley.

In the wake of his historic UFC 205 win over Eddie Alvarez, McGregor toyed with the idea of moving up to 170 to go after Woodley’s welterweight championship. With that being said, McGregor of course is going to be sitting on the sidelines until his girlfriend, Dee Devlin, gives birth to their child in May.

In addition, McGregor stated following his win over Alvarez that if the new UFC owners would like him to continue to bring in record-breaking numbers for the promotion, they must give him equity in the company.

While there are certainly many hurdles to clear to set the stage for a potential title fight for McGregor at welterweight, SBG Ireland head coach John Kavanagh believes the move is a very doable one, and McGregor can potentially dethrone welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.

He spoke to MMAFighting:

“I don’t see why not,” Kavanagh said. “I don’t know. Maybe it won’t happen. We’ve got so many irons in the fire at this stage. But I don’t see what other people are saying, ‘There’s no way Conor can touch this guy.’ There is. No one is perfect. There’s openings there. Of course, he’s a bigger man, he’s got more power and you’ve gotta be super careful. But Conor trains with big guys like this. I see him do amazing things in the gym all the time.”

“He’s not enormous (Woodley). He’s not some Goliath man. He’s a little bit bigger. Conor would have reach on him, he would have technique on him in the striking, for sure. He’d have to of course deal with that power. … I certainly don’t in my head go, ‘Oh my God, no. We couldn’t possibly beat him.’ It’s a doable fight.”

Woodley of course is coming off a majority draw against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, and according to UFC President Dana White will be having a rematch with ‘Wonderboy’ for his next fight.