Conor McGregor's coach says the Manny Pacquiao super-fight is 'in the works'

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Conor McGregor's coach says the Manny Pacquiao super-fight is 'in the works'
Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor.Photos by John Locher / Isaac Brekken / AP Images
  • Conor McGregor and Manny Pacquiao are involved in advanced talks for a lucrative boxing match early 2021, the Irishman's coach John Kavanagh said Sunday.
  • It would be McGregor's second boxing match as a professional after losing in the 10th round to Floyd Mayweather in 2017.
  • A big difference this time is that it would likely be for a world title, as Pacquiao is the current incumbent WBO welterweight champion.
  • "Both boxers have agreed fundamentally," Kavanagh said.
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Conor McGregor's coach said the Manny Pacquiao mega-fight is "in the works," and expects the lucrative boxing match to take place "early next year."

John Kavanagh, the renowned coach at Dublin's Straight Blast Gym, told Boxing Productions TV: "The wheels are in the motion and it looks like I'll be coaching boxing again."

A bout between the two marquee combat athletes has long been mooted, with McGregor even telling reporters in January that he and the former eight-weight boxing champion had been talking about getting in the ring together.

Since then, Pacquiao signed to Paradigm SM, the same agency which represents McGregor, and the company's founder Audie Attar said in May that a boxing fight is still possible.

Now, it appears closer than ever.

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"I do know it's in the works," Kavanagh said Sunday. "I believe both boxers have agreed fundamentally, behind the scenes there's a lot of terms and conditions and legal teams and managers that have to work out the fine details but I believe it will happen."

Though McGregor has limited boxing experience as a professional fighter, he did train for years as a teenager at the Crumlin Boxing Club, an academy near to where he grew up as a child.

A match involving Pacquiao, the WBO welterweight champion, would be McGregor's second, after being stopped in the 10th round of his boxing debut by Floyd Mayweather in 2017.

McGregor recruited his old boxing coach from Crumlin, Phil Sutcliffe, to be a part of his team ahead of his 40-second victory over Donald Cerrone in January, and he'll also form part of the coaching team for the Pacquiao fight, according to Kavanagh.

The MMA striking coach Owen Roddy will also train McGregor, with Kavanagh himself overseeing the team.

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"I'll play a part, but it will be mostly Owen and Phil Sutcliffe, Conor's long-time boxing coach from Crumlin Boxing.

"The bulk of the work will be done with those guys but I always have a hand in there."

A former two-weight UFC champion, McGregor said last week that the fight would take place in the Middle East.

Sean Gibbons, a representative for Pacquiao, laughed off the suggestion a bout agreement was in place and implied McGregor had been drinking his own branded whiskey, Proper No. Twelve, when he tweeted the news.

A Team Pacquiao statement to CNN Philippines, though, claimed an agreement might not be far off as the Filipino, who is also a sitting senator, wanted to donate the fight proceedings to help toward COVID-19 relief in his home country.

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Pacquiao had said in March, as the health crisis caused by the coronavirus was exponentially growing, that he's "not afraid to die" if it meant helping his country battle the pandemic.

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