Conor McGregor had one of his charges on The Ultimate Fighter give him an haircut as part of a bonding exercise days before his crunch fight.
The Irishman's top bantamweight seed Mando Gutierrez took on rival Michael Chandler's No.4 Cody Gibson, and was in the middle of his weight cut when McGregor stopped by the TUF house for a meeting with his group. And after having previously offered haircuts to the entire team, Gutierrez was called into action for his coach to get a trim.
Gutierrez, who entered the house at 8-2, was considered an underdog for his bout with the considerably more experienced Gibson, who had shared the cage with the likes of Aljamain Sterling during his initial UFC run. But he didn't show many nerves while chatting and bonding with McGregor over the outlandish activity.
"I'd been in the sauna for a while and went downstairs to start cutting everyone up," Gutierrez explained during last night's episode. "First one in the chair was McGregor. From day one I was telling him if he wanted an haircut I was the man to do it, so you know that I had to step up to the plate and do what I had to do."
The pair joked about McGregor's new Forged Irish Stout, which is featured heavily this season, as Gutierrez began the process. And the fighter admitted that he had been hoping to be coached by the Irishman, whom he branded as the "best southpaw ever," over ex-Bellator champion Chandler.
"I had a lot of fun," McGregor told cameras after the bonding exercise. "It was good, I got an haircut, got freshened up and let the hair down a little bit. We had a good time." Gutierrez then complimented the two-weight champion's training regimen, insisting that his pace is "super intense".
What do you make of Conor McGregor's coaching on this season of The Ultimate Fighter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Unfortunately, the team-building exercise wasn't enough for McGregor's charge to overcome the massive gap in size and experience between he and his opponent. With just over a minute left in what was a competitive first round of their bantamweight fight, Gibson landed a flying knee which saw the bout stopped shortly afterwards.
"It was a tough fight, that was," McGregor told cameras afterwards. "Cody had plenty of experience inside the octagon throughout the years and then the flying knee was a good shot. Mando's a great little fighter, though. I would have liked him to stand his ground a bit more.
"He was on the float a bit too much for my liking and we were working on cutting the octagon in camp. It was a tough one, but Mando is a great little goer and I look forward to seeing his second chance."
