McGregor coach to corner Darragh Kelly for pro debut

Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh will be in Darragh Kelly’s corner when the Moville mixed martial artist makes his professional debut next month.

Kelly faces Junior Morgan at Bellator 270 in Dublin’s 3Arena on November 5.

The 23-year-old, 9-0 as an amateur, has been training out of Kavanagh’s Straight Blast Gym since March 2020.

Kavanagh, the coach of UFC star McGregor, will corner Kelly alongside Dave Roche, who worked with Kelly for his wins over Tajik Adbullghahar and Solomon Simon.

“Having John in the corner will give me a lot of confidence,” Kelly told the Inish Times.

“John is very technical. Everything is down to a fine detail. He’s the sort of man you feel like you want to impress him all the time. Everyone in the room feels the same about him.

“He’s very calm and very precise with everything he does.

John has a calming presence and has a great ability to break a fight down, step by step. I love him as a coach.”

Kelly first linked up with Kavanagh after defeating Carl Gallagher to win the Clan Wars featherweight title.

Kavanagh planned to turn Kelly over to the pro ranks in 2022, but the opportunity presented by a big card in Ireland proved too good to pass up.

Kelly said: “ We were going to weigh up our options, speak to some management companies and get a plan in place.

“When Ballator was announced for Dublin, John called me in August. He said it was too good of an opportunity with Bellator coming back. We fast forwarded the plan by a few months.”

Over 300 of Kelly’s supporters have snapped up tickets. The Inishowen lightweight meets Morgan, who has a 3-0 record. Morgan hasn’t fought since a September 2019 win over Fabrice Yagoue Siakeu in Spain.

Kelly said: “There’s a huge crowd going down for it. It’s a massive card and a huge stage for me.”

Bellator 270 will be headlined by the lightweight world championship fight between Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire and Peter Queally.

A bantamweight bout between Strabane’s James Gallagher and ‘Patchy’ Mix will serve as the co-headliner for the card.

Kelly is hoping that a sizeable Gallagher support from east Donegal will get into the arena early to roar him on.

He said: “It’s brilliant to get to have my debut in Dublin. It would be great to have the Donegal people all in for my fight.”