Owen Roddy is confident that the Conor McGregor the MMA world fell in love with will be back on show on Jan. 18 when he faces Donald Cerrone in the main event of UFC 246 at the T-Mobile Arena.

The celebrated former fighter and striking coach Roddy gave Eurobash the first insight into McGregor’s return camp, insisting that McGregor had already undergone an intensive strength and conditioning program even before he began his camp for “Cowboy”.

There were whispers that McGregor may change some faces in his camp ahead of his return bout, but mainstay Roddy insisted that the suggestions of various omissions were simply hearsay.

“Yeah – we’re back,” Roddy told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast.

“Conor is so busy, you can’t tie him down outside camp. And I’ve got a lot on myself, I’m running the gym and I’m doing a couple of other things. When we’re not seen constantly working together people start saying – what’s going on? I’m not doing many interviews because I’m flat out and he’s doing all of his stuff as well. We’re in camp now, so it’s go time. The one thing Conor has been constantly doing is working on his strength and conditioning – he’s constantly staying in shape and he’s constantly eating clean – and you can see that straight off the bat. Now it’s time for us to execute a game plan and go in and do it on the night. I’m very excited to be back working with him, and I’m very excited that he’s back fighting in the UFC.”

Roddy backed up McGregor’s sentiments that he is being far more disciplined ahead of the Cerrone bout in comparison to his unsuccessful title shot against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 232.

“The training camp is structured way better,” Roddy said.

“The last camp was just a bit sporadic. We didn’t know what time we were training at. Sometimes it was very late at night, sometimes it was early in the morning and nobody really knew. Even though we were making all of these sessions, I don’t think that’s good for you when he doesn’t even know what time he’s going to train at, just doing it off feel. For the past couple of months it’s been very regimented.”

“We’re training at 11 and 7 every day,” he added. “We’re doing strength and conditioning, whether it’s in the morning or evening, and then doing a technical session and it’s perfect. And you can see that’s reaping the benefits and rewards already from that. As I said, he’s been working on his strength and conditioning for a while before he even came into this camp, so now we’re not spending half the camp trying to get in shape or anything like that. Now, he’s in tip-top shape and now we’re just focusing on the game plan – coming up with a good game plan and going in and executing it.”

Although many see believe that a victory will go some ways to repairing the Dubliner’s stock on the back of a tumultuous couple of years of arrests, Roddy insisted that he’s just happy seeing McGregor in a good place.

“I think it’s great seeing Conor back enjoying what he’s doing, that’s the more important thing for me, for everybody and for Conor. You can see it in him – he’s enjoying it. I don’t know, he’s had a crazy couple of years man…I don’t know how he copes…nobody knows how he deals with what he deals with because there is so much…I can only imagine. He has so many businesses; I’m running my own business here and it’s 24/7. He’s got businesses that are worth millions and he’s got so much going, it’s chaotic I’d say. Now he’s after sorting everything out and he’s back doing what he loves to do. I think when you start to see some footage of him training, he starts to do his interviews and he starts building the fight, you’re going to see the old Conor back…I can see that already. When people see that, they’re going to say, ‘That’s the Conor we fell in love with.’ He has that hunger again. A hungry, dedicated and motivated Conor McGregor is a scary dude.”

Owen Roddy joins the latest episode of Eurobash. His interview begins at 42:00.