At UFC 205, when the now UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor took on Eddie Alvarez in the title fight, the former clasped his hands behind his back for the world to see.
While most of the fans and experts felt that McGregor was putting on a show by daring Alvarez to take a swing at him, the Irishman’s Head Coach John Kavanagh has revealed that the primary reason for the bizarre gesture was a different one.
Kavanagh, in an episode of The MMA Hour, said that McGregor actually clasped his hands behind his back due to an injury, which he had sustained on his right-hand index knuckle during his UFC 202 showing against Nate Diaz, and that hiding his hand was his way of protecting it in training.
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"He found that if he actually held his right hand behind his back, it kind of reminded him not to throw it as much," Kavanagh said. "That's why he started reaching back and actually grabbing his hand. "It was almost like a mental note: take care of the right hand."
Despite his injury, McGregor landed a fair share of strikes with his right, including the lethal combination that led him to a TKO victory.
Kavanagh also admitted that the hands-behind-the-back strategy had another purpose, by enabling McGregor to exploit Alvarez’s aggression while protecting his finger for the most part.
"If you put your hands down, an untrained person will try to swing at your head. It's a base instinct, I want to punch the guy in the head. If you have a very high level of striking, boxing like Conor does, you understand rules like that.
And there are many of them. And I don't think others are kind of catching up to that level of skill.”
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