UFC star Conor McGregor named best TUF coach despite winning just one fight
Conor McGregor has been named a better coach on The Ultimate Fighter than Daniel Cormier and Michael Chandler by this year's bantamweight winner Brad Katona.
The Canadian became TUF's first ever two-time champion earlier this month when he defeated Cody Gibson to win the bantamweight half of this year's tournament after switching mid-season from Team Chandler to Team McGregor. He had been initially set up against his own coaches, but after the Irishman lost all but one of his first fights Katona volunteered to swap sides.
Katona had rubbed Chandler and his team the wrong way with some of his behaviour in the house, making demands that would enhance his chances of taking home another tournament trophy. And there wasn't too much disappointment on either side when he left his team to join up with McGregor mid-way through the season.
"I think we know exactly the answer," Katona joked when asked by the Energized Show to rank his three coaches, having worked with former heavyweight and light-heavyweight champion Cormier in his first season. "It would be Conor, then DC and then Chandler."
While many were critical of the amount of time McGregor allocated to his team, Katona feels that he set them up in such a way that their success or failure was in their own hands. He feels the coaches they were working with more regularly were the best of the best, and that the Irishman did his best for the fighters.
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"The team that Conor brought, I can only assume that it's out of his pocket," he explained. "I know people will say 'oh well he has so much money' and all that, but it doesn't change what he did. He brought in, I believe, the best coaches in the world John [Kavanagh], Owen [Roddy], Sergey [Pikulskiy].
Brad Katona won The Ultimate Fighter without Conor McGregor in attendance for the finale (Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)"Then he brought in Tristan Kennedy the nutritionist, the FAST doc [Julian Dalby] and the FAST crew, he brought in a massage sports therapist for his team, a chef for the refuel meals. And then you have Conor himself actually taking some of the practices; how is that not elite? That's exactly what you need, checking every box and putting everything in your favour.
"I don't think the UFC picked up that bill, I think Conor picked up that bill. We can argue that he has a ton of money but it doesn't change the fact of what he did, he set that up. Daniel Cormier after that was a very good coach, brought in a great team as well, a nutritionist and gave us whatever we could possibly need."
Katona was coached by Cormier in season 27 of the reality show when he took on Stipe Miocic, with the pair eventually battling for the heavyweight title. The Olympic wrestler was light-heavyweight champion at the time, and Katona recalls feeling cared for by his trainer in his first run on the show.
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"I remember him bringing us for a pool workout just to break up the monotony of being in The Ultimate Fighter gym every day. He took a lot of the human aspect into account and then Team Chandler, I don't think did a horrible job. Do I wish they had a nutritionist? Absolutely.
"There are other things besides training that matter. Should we have pushed to use more of the Performance Institute and had maybe a bit more enjoyment? That sounds weird but everything that DC did to break us out of the routine goes a long way when you're in this pressure cooker.
"Team Chandler brought in great coaches, a lot of great guys and that was nice so it's not like he did a bad job. It seemed like he did care a lot but there's levels to this game and I think look at the Formula 1 team Conor brought in, we felt like the race cars we are."
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