Do you remember Rocky IV? It had some legendary training sequences. Sylvester Stallone grew a beard and he depicted Rocky going back to savage basics. He ran through snow, pushed plows, jerked on ropes, he had to get primal to fight his opponent. All this was set up to juxtapose Ivan Drago in a state-of-the-art facility, with cords hooked up to him while he was attached to lifting machines. Doctors were even there recording every result and change in his body. Thats kind of what Conor McGregor was doing down at the UFC Performance Institute to push himself to the next level in preparation for Floyd Mayweather.

Its kind of common knowledge through social media and things like that, Conor has used our altitude chamber extensively. Ultimately what hes trying to do is change his physiology somewhat. If you look at the work-rest ratio of boxing, its about 3-to-1. If you look at the work-rest ratio of a UFC fight, its about 1-to-4. It completely flips the physiology on its head, right? Which means Conor has kind of adapted his physiology to 12, three-minute rounds rather than five, five-minute rounds. UFC Performance Institute vice president of performance Duncan French speaking to MMA Fighting.

Things like just doing the interval work that hes been doing in the hypoxic [altitude] chamber is going to try and help his physiology to support that. Hes used the altitude chamber extensively. A lot of his workouts are based on heart-rate assessment and looking at high-level threshold training.

Running underwater, training in hypoxic chambers, bigger, stronger, faster. This is what Conor McGregor was aiming for. He combined this new training with the F.A.S.T. (Fighter Anaerobic/Aerobic System of Training) program his team developed with an Irish cyclist and a physiologist to get ready for Nate Diaz. His last fight with Diaz proved way different than the first, McGregor attributed that to his new program. Duncan French, the VP of UFCs Performance Institute, believes his time there will also result in visible pay-offs in the fight with Mayweather. Well find out if it did in just a few, short hours.

We hope it does and we surely believe it will, and I think that comes back to capabilities. The UFC Performance Institute offers Conor capabilities that he wouldnt have otherwise have in his regular training facility. Hes embraced those. Hes an athlete thats very in tune with his body. Hes in great shape, hes ready for the fight of his life. And hes prepared effectively and used every piece of our capability that he wanted to to help him in this process.

This article first appeared onBJPenn.comon 8/26/2017.

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Conor McGregor Completely Changed His Physiology for Fight With Mayweather - BJPenn.com (press release) (blog)