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Conor McGregor will need just eight minutes to beat Eddie Alvarez .

That is the prediction from his long-term coach John Kavanagh ahead of the lightweight title bout at UFC 205 .

McGregor will bid to add the belt to the featherweight strap he won with a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo last December.

And Kavanagh doesn't expect Alvarez to make it past the second round.

He said: "I'll go with the second round. I'm going to be conservative. I do think round one will be quite a lot on the fence.

"But, it's an exhausting style, especially the way Conor can defend himself on the fence, he doesn't rely on muscle, he relies on posture, which is not tiring. It just takes one break.

(Image: Getty)

“Round two they start; the shots won’t be quite as fast, the muscles won't be quite as energetic and he's a slippery customer to try and hold for that length of time. So I think around about the eight-minute mark, that’s when it’ll happen."

Kavanagh, who was speaking on the MMA Hour , also expects Alvarez to resort to a brawling style.

"It just happens so often that they do get in there and the talk goes out the window," he added. "They get cracked with a couple of clean jabs and then it becomes the ‘head down’ and back to what you know and what you’re good at. "

Intriguingly, Alvarez has also predicted victory after eight minutes.

He said: "This guy got eight minutes of fighting, that's it. He quits after eight minutes and that's it. He’s not a championship fighter; he's never been. And he’s never, ever fought anyone in the UFC like me."