Owen Roddy

The Irish striking specialist

Owen Roddy is the Dublin-based striking coach who's worked with Conor McGregor throughout his UFC career. Roddy's background was in Irish kickboxing and boxing; the partnership with McGregor formalized as McGregor's striking specialist within the broader John Kavanagh coaching system at SBG Ireland.

The defining feature of the Roddy coaching is the McGregor southpaw left-hand attack — the technically-clean counter cross that produced the 13-second KO of José Aldo at UFC 194 and the round-1 KO of Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.

The McGregor strikes

The McGregor striking offense developed under Roddy's coaching:

• Counter left straight: the rear-hand counter thrown off the opponent's commitment to a combination. The Aldo KO at UFC 194 was a textbook counter left.
• Lead-hand jab: McGregor's pawing jab that controls range and sets up the rear left.
• Spinning back kick: occasional setup strike from the southpaw stance.
• Front kick: long-range distance-control strike.
• Lead-leg leg kicks: cumulative damage strikes used during the lightweight title reign.

The combined attack catalog made McGregor the most-feared single-shot striker at featherweight and lightweight during his 2014-2016 peak.

The 2018-2024 era

The McGregor career arc post-UFC 229 (the Khabib loss) has been complicated by inactivity. Roddy has continued coaching at SBG Ireland and has worked with multiple other Irish MMA athletes alongside McGregor.

The McGregor return-from-leg-break preparation (post-UFC 264, July 2021) has been a long-running coaching project that hasn't yet produced a return bout as of mid-2025.

The cultural impact

Roddy's coaching role in the McGregor commercial era (2014-2018) made him one of the most-recognized MMA striking coaches in the world. The visible coaching presence — Roddy was usually in McGregor's corner alongside Kavanagh — gave Irish MMA coaching a public-facing identity that previous coaching specialists had lacked.

The legacy

Owen Roddy's coaching impact is largely tied to the McGregor career arc. The two title-winning KO performances (UFC 194 Aldo, UFC 205 Alvarez) and the 47-second Cerrone KO at UFC 246 remain his most-significant coaching credentials.

The McGregor southpaw counter-striking template — particularly the rear-left-hand counter — has influenced subsequent southpaw MMA strikers attempting to replicate the technical clarity of the McGregor 2014-2016 peak.