NATHAN KELLY was drunk and battling depression when he messaged Conor McGregor’s coach to help turn his career around.
But the off-the-cuff message to MMA mastermind John Kavanagh – fuelled by Dutch courage – would change Kelly’s life.
Kelly was a 1-2 professional working as a manager in Aldi when his fighting prospects faced the KO during the coronavirus lockdown.
The Irishman was driven to drink but could not get the image of a winning MMA career out of his mind.
That is when he plucked up enough courage to reach out to Straight Blast Gym owner Kavanagh – the man best-known as McGregor’s head coach.
Kelly, 27, told SunSport: “I just kept visualising coming back fighting.
“I remember one night I was locked in the gaff, I was wallowing in self-pity a lot and I was dabbling with drink way too much.
“One day I was sitting at home and one day I thought, ‘F*** it, I’m going to text John.’
“Because I kept having these visions of coming back fighting and visualising myself back doing it and I was getting mad goosebumps.
“I wanted to see where the goosebumps would lead me so I text John.
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“I fought a lot of the SBG lads growing up and John was like, ‘Mate, you’re more than welcome to come up whenever you want.’
“So, a few weeks went by and I got the balls to join and since I did, I’ve made the effort to continuously graft to get to the point where some of the lads were.”
Kelly – probably with a sore head – admits to waking up with the realisation of what he had done the previous night.
He said: “Believe it or not, I was full of whiskey I was and I thought, ‘F*** it, I’m going to text him.’ and he said, ‘Yeah, come down whenever.’
“The next day I looked at the message sober and I was like,’ What the f*** am I doing?’
“But sending that message was like a subconscious thing for myself to get myself back on track.
“I was trying to resolve a lot of issues I had in my head while I was drunk to then have to face them when I was sober.”
Kelly had a year in Kavanagh’s gym before making his MMA return in August 2021, winning in NINE SECONDS.
We keep our interactions brief and respectful and I think that’s what he likes about it.
Nathan Kelly on Conor McGregor
And the featherweight has only reaped the rewards of Kavanagh’s guidance, having since won nine on the bounce.
Looking back, Kelly admits the decision to text Kavanagh changed his life.
He said: “I think it did. Because it was the first step I made to going in the right direction.
“I’ve seen this quote, it’s like, ‘The journey of 100,000 thousand miles starts with one step.’
“That was my one step into the big journey that I was about to involve myself in.”
Not only has Kelly profited from the wisdom of John Kavanagh and Dave Roche, he has also shared sparring rounds with McGregor.
And the two have formed a friendship with the UFC legend casting a keen eye over Kelly’s career.
He said: “When he was back in the gym he was congratulating me and I said, ‘Me and Dave had been drilling that elbow for weeks so it was satisfying.’
“He said, ‘I thought that looked a bit of Dave, alright!’ Since then he’s been reaching out to me and we’ve been getting to know each other a little bit more.
“Because I’m not one to go and lick his a**e and scrounge off him or try to be around him and get him to like me.
“I think he respects that and naturally he’s gravitated towards me because of that.
“We keep our interactions brief and respectful and I think that’s what he likes about it.”
Kelly now returns on Saturday in Dublin against Jose Sanchez as Bellator comes to Ireland.
But following Bellator’s merger with the Professional Fighters League, Kelly is eyeing the $1million season next year.
PFL’s format consists of two regular season bouts, where points are earned according to the method of victory, and then the play-offs.
The group stage and knockout rounds is reminiscent to how the Champions League is played out across Europe.
But instead of the iconic trophy, PFL winners celebrate with a life-changing $1m cheque.
And Kelly said: “I want to be in that season next year, that’s the goal I initially set for myself.”
