Conor McGregor flew out an hand-picked team of elite fighters and coaches to accompany him for a Cannes training camp as his UFC return edges ever closer.
The MMA legend has been out of action for the past two-and-a-half years, but is eager to return in December after agreeing to a fight with Michael Chandler. And frustrated with a lack of movement, he put together a group of teammates from his home gyms of SBG Ireland and Crumlin Boxing club and utilised his McGregor FAST programme during an intense camp.
McGregor brought long-time training partners Cian Cowley and Lee Hammond as well as his Crumlin Boxing coach Phil Sutcliffe with him to the South of France, and rounded up a group of other coaches and fighters from his wider circle. And while head trainer John Kavanagh wasn't in attendance due to other commitments, he was involved - bringing Bellator's Ciaran Clarke on board.
"It was so spontaneous," Clarke told Mirror Fighting. "I was kind of having a 'de-load' week and I got a call from John asking how I was getting on, how's your sleep and he says, 'Look would you want to do a bit of training with Conor?' I'd trained with Conor one or two weeks before that, so I go, 'Yeah, what time tomorrow?'
Conor McGregor took a hand-picked team out to Cannes (Lee Hammond/Twitter)"That's when John said, 'No, it's actually over in Cannes in France and I was like, 'Oh right, yeah' so he had me send my passport details and within 10 minutes it was booked and a few hours I was in France... All I can say is it was an experience and it was just so valuable to me.
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"On my end I think that one or two lads had pulled out and there was a team assembled anyway. Cian and Lee are staples of Conor's training, they're always with the lads. He just assembled a team and a few weeks prior when we were training he kind of singled me out of a mat full of 50 people in SBG and said 'Ciaran, I'll go with you'. I think he took a liking to me, I'm a safe training partner."
Crosbie was picked up to fight Kevin Jousset at UFC 293 in Sydney this Saturday, while Clarke had known about his Bellator 299 fight at Dublin's 3Arena against Przemyslaw Gorny for months. And McGregor immediately began to take a keen interest in both men's bouts, organising extra sessions to keep them sharp and meticulously studying tape of their opponents.
"It was great just to be around Conor and talking to Conor in person," Crosbie told Mirror Fighting . "Getting advice face-to-face. He knows me 12 years, I'm training with him a long time and he's seen everything I've been through in my career, he's been there since I had my first amateur fight in SBG.
"He's seen it all and he was just so proud and giving me serious advice and talking to me properly. Before I even went over, actually, he had looked my opponent up and looked at all of his fights. Broke them down in details that you couldn't pay for and we have the same mindset.
"I have a great eye for fighting as well and a great fight IQ, the two of us were literally on the same path and like 'that's the shot, this is what you do'. We just had great conversations about it and I'm very grateful to have the greatest of all time invested in my career, I'm unbelievably grateful for that."
Kiefer Crosbie will fight tomorrow night at UFC 293 in Sydney (kiefercrosbie_mma/Instagram)
And Ciaran Clarke competes at Bellator 299 on September 23 in the 3Arena (Lucas Noonan/Bellator MMA)Are you excited for Conor McGregor's return to the UFC? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Clarke had a similar experience, adding: "When we were training, Conor was very conscious [of the fact that we had fights]. He'd let us know that we had to get a second session in and would tell everyone 'it has to be x, y and z for the two boys'. Conor was great, he's getting back into it."
Fans will have spotted a number of posts showing the Irishman enjoying his downtime in France, heading out on his plush £3million Lamborghini yacht. But even that, it appears, was part of the plan - with the Bellator star noting McGregor is a huge proponent of recovery days that allow for more intensive training when necessary.
"Without a shadow of a doubt he's sharp," Clarke explained, before mentioning that a few days after the team arrived back in Dublin he received his Jiu-Jitsu black belt after nine years since his last grading. "His movement and everything and his mind for the game, he's so sharp mentally.
"Another thing I learned when I was over there was resting when you need to, giving 100 per cent in every session. If you're constantly going foot to the mat and killing yourself, you're not fully there so when the sparring days come you're not fully giving your all.
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"That's what I was learning from Conor, he'd be like, 'Take your rest day now because tomorrow we're going at it hard and we're going to get 100 per cent out of the session'. If you run extra miles and come in, your body is tired and your mind's tired, with Conor I really saw the benefits of being fresh and mentally fresh."
And despite the keen interest in Crosbie and Clarke's fights, the camp was clearly for McGregor. The legendary fighter initially was pushing for a December date against Chandler to finish out their feud from The Ultimate Fighter, but while they were in France, it began to emerge that such a timeframe was unlikely, before he later tweeted that it was "back on the table".
In a lengthy series of now-deleted voice notes, he explained that he was staying in Cannes to train despite the TUF finale happening in Boston at UFC 292. He appeared to take inspiration from his team's bantamweight tournament winner Brad Katona, who explained that he didn't stay up late to watch UFC fights in Ireland, but instead went to bed early on a Friday and woke up to view.
It almost appeared to get emotional for McGregor at times during the near-nine-minute diatribe recorded in the evening in Cannes. He described his "epiphany" that made him head to bed instead of staying up into the early morning to watch Ian Machado Garry defeat Neil Magny.
"They're not going to let me fight in December, ladies and gentlemen," McGregor said. "You've seen Chris Weidman. Imagine what that injury is. I feel like I'm being kept from my livelihood, and I've been feeling this for years. I'm not going to air grievances. I'm going to buoy down and soldier on. I'm ready. I wanted an announcement for December 16. I've given everything. So, it's not going to happen. It doesn't look like it's going to happen."
McGregor even attempted to contact former commissioner for the Nevada State Athletic Commission Bob Bennett through UFC owner Ari Emmanuel, but was informed he was retired. And Clarke feels that based on McGregor's work behind closed doors in the camp, he would be ready for December.
"As far as December? He's going to be really sharp and really ready for that fight," he said. "He's getting ready for something coming up, I don't know because it's all rumours and there's no actual contracts signed but I know that he would love to be fighting in December, we don't know."
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