It’s no secret that Conor McGregor is obsessed with movement. So it’s only fitting that leading up to his big title unification against Jose Aldo at UFC 194, the brash Irishman hired movement coach Ido Portal to help him improve his movement patterns.
“It’s called Ido Portal method. It’s a movement approach that I developed for the last 20 years. A variety of shapes, movements, from dance to improvisation, to fighting, footwork, locomotion, flowing on the floor, moving on the ground, moving in the air, anything and everything. Something to promote good quality movement in the fighters”, says Portal, who recently stated that McGregor is taking Anderson Silva’s and Jon Jones’ movement to “the next level”.
“Once you’re pinned down, and you’re a sitting target, you’re moving in predictable ways, it’s very easy to implement all kinds of attacks on you. Then people like Aldo can shine. But once you’re on the move, unpredictable, taking all kinds of shapes, rhythms, then the game changes,” Portal continued.
McGregor already posted a 15-second clip of training footage on Instagram about a month ago. You can watch the first in-depth look at Portal’s work now, in the first episode of UFC 194 Embedded.