Conor McGregor has always been the type to spare no expense, so it should be no surprise that he takes the same approach to fight camps. Leading up to his rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 202, the Irish superstar says he’s forked out hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare.
“With gyms, cars, transport, flights, accommodations, I’d estimate we’re talking a $300,000 camp here,” McGregor said to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “This is a big, big expense, but what I make is big. So, in the bigger picture, it’s rather small.”
Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson once said “A good training camp will cost you $100,000” and when you factor in the cost of flying in and housing training partners for two months, you can imagine how costs can quickly balloon. That’s without swagger-style additions to the bottom line like a mansion on a 2.5 acre property and what I assume are top of the line luxury vehicles for everyone in McGregor’s squad.
The people McGregor has brought in to train with are no scrubs either. Marcelo Garcia black belt Dillon Danis has been sharpening McGregor’s ground skills, while lanky Irish middleweight boxer Conor Wallace has been imitating Nate Diaz’s long striking game. Unlike past training camps, McGregor has been coming in early and staying late, adopting a military style regiment that had been lacking in past camps.
“This is most certainly not another fight,” McGregor told ESPN. “I have done things differently this fight. We have been going to war every single day in the gym in preparation for this. So, this is a war to me.”
Will it make a difference? Bookies have McGregor and Diaz odds set evenly around -100, but when you factor in heavy betting on the Irishman, that points to Diaz being the oddsmaker’s choice to win. But as always, Conor McGregor has been putting together a compelling argument for victory on August 20th when the two rematch each other at UFC 202.
