Lone’er Kavanagh Respects Brandon Moreno — But Plans to Take Out a Legend

All right, I'm here with Lonnie Kavanaugh.

Big main event coming up in Mexico City Saturday night.

This is on short notice.

What went through your head when you got a, got the call, cause it's not an extremely common occurrence to book a main event.

You are coming off a loss against a legend like Brandon.

What, what went through your head when you got that call?

You know what, it's just excitement, you know.

Obviously I spoke with my team and went through it with them, and we were all for it, you know , and You know, for, for me, I'm a man of God and I prayed for times like these, you know, I prayed for these opportunities and, and to be presented one, you've got to take them, you know.

It must have told you that the UFC still thinks very highly of you, right, um, to be put in that position and to be offered a main event on such a big stage in Mexico.

Yeah, definitely, and you know, I'm very thankful for the UFC because It's these opportunities that are life changing, you know.

So, you know, you did face some adversity for the first time in your career.

What was the biggest thing you've kind of taken away from that, um, that loss against Charles, and how, how have you moved forward since then?

For me, it's just about improving everywhere, you know.

And, and, you know, unfortunately my last fight didn't go my way, but that doesn't define me.

And it's just about improving every aspect of my game and some.

So that's what I've been, what I've been doing and what I look to, to look forward to the show on Saturday.

When you talk to your coaches after that fight, you know, I'm sure they talked to you about like your mental um acumen and, and where your head's at.

Have, did they try to like talk to you about how to turn a loss into a positive and maybe turn it into a win in the future?

Yeah, definitely.

You know what, my, my coaches are amazing.

You know, I have such amazing coaches and they're, they're like family to me, you know, and for me.

The mental side of the sport is, is 90% of the, of the game, you know, and I'd like to think I'm very strong mentally, I have such a good team around me, and I put my trust in them.

And um, yeah, so I feel like it's just increased my mental, my mental strength.

So it's an interesting time in your division.

Uh, Joshua Van will be defending the title against uh Tyra.

There were talks about maybe Monell Coop.

Do you think that Tyra was the correct booking at this time?

To be honest with you, yeah, I do.

You know, he's, he's, he's done so well in the UFC.

He's good and especially with like the way the title fight went last time, I feel like any of them are deserving of the title fight, you know, and it just so happened to be his name without that.

You would be of the of the school of thought where when Pantoja is healthy again, that he would get a shot no matter what, right?

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

You have an affinity for ninjas, and you talk about ninjas all the time .

What is the most ninja thing about your fighting style, would you say?

Ninjas are unpredictable.

They lie on their feet.

They, they move quick, you know, when they strike, they strike.

So I feel like.

All things ninja.

It's my style, if that makes sense.

What's the one ninja skill that you think is, uh, the most dangerous, like being able to move silently or being able to hear at far distances?

What, what do you think?

I think everything, you know.

I feel like to be a ninja, you need, you can't just have one aspect, you know what I mean?

You need everything.

So I feel like it's a combination of everything.

I do like the way that they, they're very stealthy.

They move quick on their feet as well.

Let's talk about your opponent because obviously he's a legend of the sport.

I would assume he's a future Hall of Famer, uh, former champion as well.

Being a little bit younger that you followed his career, uh, what do you make of him as a mixed martial artist and his legacy in the USA ?

Brendan, Brendan's been around for so long, you know, he's been a, been a power holder.

He's, he's a legend.

Do you know what I mean?

He's a legend regardless.

He seems like a nice guy as well, you know.

Uh, I know he likes Lego, stuff like that.

Um, but yeah, you know what, so I have the utmost respect for him.

I have respect for every, every person I fight, you know, the people who don't know what goes on behind fighting him.

To be a fighter, it takes a lot, you know.

I mean, it's, it's hard with a guy like Brandon to find something that you don't like about him, right?

I don't think anybody doesn't like him.

When you're, when you're fighting an opponent like that.

Is, is there a difference where maybe there's some bad blood against another guy, or is it just when you get in there, it doesn't matter who's in front of you?

Yeah, for me it doesn't matter who's in front of me.

Like, you know, my coach Brad said one thing to me, like when I was really young, he was like, he used to say, you can be the nicest person in the world to me.

I'm going to go in there and punch you in the face as hard as I can.

You can be an absolute not nice person to me.

I'm not going to swear, not a nice person to me.

I'm going to go in there and punch you in the face as hard as I can.

For me, It's, I have one goal, one mission, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

Are you relishing the fact that you're going to be fighting in enemy territory?

You are a little bit of an underdog coming into this fight.

Does that kind of give you a little extra added fuel?

Yeah, definitely.

You know what, everything is insured, you know, and it's just a, it's an awesome opportunity.

Not even just obviously the opportunity itself is amazing, but Experience in this, I mean, I get to do this.

It's, it's, it's insane, you know.

Last one for me, speaking about getting to do this, uh, tell our audience here at Sports Illustrated, if you weren't in the cage, would you be playing another sport?

Is there a different occupation you think you would excel at?

I'm, it's definitely not football or soccer for you guys.

I'm terrible at that.

For me, yeah, it's life is about being able to, if , if I could, if little Lon could see what I was doing now, I just want him to be proud and.

I don't want them to believe what I'm doing now, and I don't want to be able to in 50 years' time look back and be like, Yeah, cool, I did some cool stuff, you know.

So whatever I would have done in life, it would have been along those lines, you know.

All fighting all the time.

Thank you so much for your time, man.

Good luck on Saturday night.

Thank you very much.