Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh believes comedian Paul Smith will have to struggle to maintain his energy in his MMA debut against Jake Quickenden.
Comedian Smith and former X Factor contestant Jake Quickenden will fight on an Oktagon card in Manchester on November 4, and both fighters have taken part in a Channel Four documentary, ‘Oktagon: Stage to the Cage.’
Smith trained with Kavanagh and after being submitted seven times, he admitted: "Well that was demoralising, some people just make you feel like a f***** toddler. Absolutely mad that."
He continued: "When you feel someone like that even just messing with you, f****** hell man, there are so many levels to this.”
Dublin's Kavanagh advised: "The hardest thing in your first fight is managing your energy. You walk out, there's ten thousand people screaming, there's a big build up. And which one of you two can just manage that for sixty seconds?
"And you'll feel it when he grips you - and you'll think "this guy's a monster" - why? Because he's putting 100 percent effort into everything. And you just ride the bull, ride the bull for that first minute or two, then you start to become human again. And you've got that experience of walking out into a big crowd, use that to your advantage."
Kavanagh continued: "I imagine he's going to learn a lot about himself, by the end of it he's going to be proud of himself. That amount of effort [he's put in]. That ability to set a goal - a year's worth of training is a long time, he's not just doing six weeks he's doing a year - see it through, keep on pushing, go through the bad times as well as the good.
“And at the end of it he has a contest - give it his all - he might win or he might lose, we don't know about that. Half the card wins, half the card loses. But I guarantee the day after it he's going to gain so much mental strength out of it - and that for me is what MMA is all about."