mma / News

Chris van Heerden Reveals Why He Released Conor McGregor Sparring Footage Online

June 20, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Former IBO and IBF welterweight champion Chris van Heerden spoke with MMAjunkie after releasing unedited footage last week of a sparring session he did with Conor McGregor. You can check out the highlights (and the video) below:

On the McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather match being sanctioned by the NSAC: “The danger about all of this is the conditioning. Boxing is a completely different type of standup fighting to MMA, and 12 rounds is a hell of a long time. If you’ve never done it, you’re in for a rude awakening. It’s two different worlds, two different mindsets, and in my opinion, it shouldn’t have been allowed. You must call a spade a spade.”

On releasing the footage online: “When people ask me why I’ve released this footage now, it’s because it hurts me that there are guys like myself who have been devoted to this sport, risking our lives. And to see McGregor, who has zero knowledge of professional boxing, make it out like he could just get out of an octagon, step in the ring and beat up the best pound-for-pound fighter out there – to just make out like our lifestyle is so easy and that anybody could do it, and then for people to be saying he has a big chance of beating Floyd. I just thought, judge for yourself.”

On how the sparring session came about: “Conor asked me if I minded moving around with him at some point. I knew it was for the Nate Diaz rematch, but at that same point, the McGregor vs. Mayweather talks caught fire. For me being from South Africa, in America, I needed a way to get my name out over here. So, with the talks of the fight with Mayweather going on, if I moved around with Conor, I knew people were going to want to know who I was. So I said yes, but it was a big risk because I was out of shape and hadn’t trained for a month.”

On how the sessions went: “We sparred on two different occasions. When I sparred with him on the first occasion, which was even worse than the second time, I cut his nose, but it was all fun. We weren’t in there trying to kill each other. The next session was the one from where the footage leaked. Conor came in with his camera people, so at the same time, I told one of my friends to take out his phone and record it too.”

On an edited video being released before he posted his: “Then TMZ released the footage, and I asked the gym owner how they got their hands on it. They said they had spoken to Conor, who said it was OK to release the footage. But nobody had ever asked for my approval. Conor McGregor’s team edited and posted footage for the MacLife of the sparring session between me and Conor, and it made me look very bad. Then the media blew up, saying ‘Conor McGregor beats up ex-world champion boxer’ and all this.”

On posting the video: “I was in a bad place right there. My world was crashing down, because why would these people do this? But I had footage from my friend’s phone, so after about a week of all this, I thought I’m not going to let Conor get away with this. So I put out the six-minute unedited version that my friend had, and people can judge from that. I gave it to TMZ, and suddenly, people were like maybe it wasn’t as one-sided as Conor made out…Once again, I was just having fun, and if I knew that was going to happen, I would have taken it way more serious. Myself and Conor never spoke again after that footage came out, so I don’t think they were very happy with everything that went on. I think it’s because they know they done me bad first, and what goes around comes around.”

On what he thinks McGregor should do: “I would go and a beg a Freddie Roach or one of the best trainers in the world, and ask them to teach me whatever they can in the two months. He needs to have a boxing trainer in his corner.”

On how he thinks the fight will go: “Whatever Conor has learned in boxing over the last year, the moment Mayweather starts tagging him, he is going forget all of that, and Floyd will make him pay. After three or four rounds, Conor is going to realize that it is a different type of fitness. Mayweather is just going to keep tagging him, Conor will get frustrated, start throwing punches, then miss and start to gas. Mayweather will just keep punishing him and then put Conor on his back.”