Like so many 20-year-olds, Conor Wallace had no concrete plans as the summer approached, but the prospect of being ensconced in the arid surrounds of the Nevada desert in the company of a bona fide sporting superstar certainly never occurred to him.

But then he met Conor McGregor, and within what felt like the blink of an eye, Wallace’s schedule was full to the brim.

Wallace, for those unfamiliar with the Irish amateur boxing scene, is among the most highly touted young pugilists in the nation.

Coming through the ranks, the native of Newry, Northern Ireland, won six national titles and, in his first foray on the senior stage, finished runner-up to European Games gold medallist Michael O’Reilly, who, subsequently, became the first Irish athlete to be sent home from this year’s Summer Olympics after failing a drugs test conducted prior to arriving in Rio de Janeiro.

He also so happens to be a 6-3, 170-pound rangy southpaw – precisely the body type McGregor (19-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) required to ape Nate Diaz (19-10 MMA, 14-8 UFC), the man who so unceremoniously defeated him via second-round submission in UFC 196’s welterweight main event in March.

Wallace was recommended to McGregor by Irish world amateur champion Michael Conlan as the UFC featherweight kingpin sought to put preparations in motion for tonight’s five-round welterweight headliner at UFC 202 in Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

“I went up to SBG for a bit of sparring,” Wallace told MMAjunkie, referring to McGregor’s longtime home at Straight Blast Gym (SBG) in Dublin. “I was fighting in London the following weekend and got a bad cut on my eye, and he wrote a letter to me, asking how long was I going to be out and saying he’d like to get some more sparring in.

“I didn’t hear from him for a couple of days, and then he texted asking if me and my coach would be interested in coming with him to America for seven weeks for the camp. It was mad.”

Aside from following McGregor’s meteoric rise to the summit of MMA, Wallace admitted to being decidedly unfamiliar with the sport, which was why he was somewhat taken aback by the former’s boxing prowess upon their initial meeting.

“We were surprised by how good he was,” Wallace said. “Obviously, he boxed when he was younger, but you don’t really know.

“He was very slick, a fast learner. And I can see from the first (session) we had he’s obviously watched all the footage because as the weeks have gone on, he’s just got better and better in terms of handling a tall southpaw.

“Conor’s boxing is very slick, he has excellent accuracy, and once he gets into range and throws a shot, it’s very rare that he misses.”

Of course, Wallace is just one key component in a bespoke fight camp that McGregor has claimed cost upward of $300,000 to facilitate.

In a SBG first, and as a profound response to Diaz’s seismic victory in their first bout, the Irish team have specified preparations to an opponent’s attributes.

In a departure from his favored evasiveness in his day job, Wallace’s sole purpose was to enact Diaz’s unorthodox brand of stand-up offense.

“My usual style would have me moving a lot and on the back foot, but I’m here to help Conor so, in sparring, it was about being like Diaz,” he said. “I was watching him before even I first sparred Conor. Obviously, I want Conor to do well and I want to bring out the best in him, so I was doing my best to do Diaz, so he overcome his strengths.

“I had to soak up the shots like Diaz so Conor would get used to letting punches go and not get gassed. I’d keep a nice tight guard, walk him back and let him walk me back too. We did some serious, full-out sparring.”

McGregor has rarely encountered a fellow leftie during his career and, from a boxing perspective, Wallace said it can be highly unsettling. Much of their work has addressed that issue.

“It can be awkward,” he said. “You’re both leading with the same foot together. The jab is the key factor when two southpaws are fighting, so you can get the measure of him and get the back hand going.

“When an orthodox is fighting a southpaw, he’ll just be throwing straight right hands through the guard, but it’s a bit awkward if two southpaws are fighting.”

If, as expected, tonight’s rematch is contested mainly on the feet, McGregor must navigate Diaz’s three-inch advantage in both height and reach, something that became increasingly precarious for him as the Californian seized control of their first fight midway through the second stanza.

Wallace contends that there is a clear blueprint to do so. He plans to remind McGregor accordingly as one of his cornermen this evening.

“It’s a lot to do with his foot movement,” he said. “Because Conor is the smaller man, he has to use his footwork to get into range where he can let the shots go. It’s different when you’re fighting your own size; he has to be cute and not get caught with silly shots on the way in.

“He needs to use a nice, tight defense with plenty of head movement and avoid coming in in straight lines. It’s best to attack from the sides, and again, the footwork is massive.”

As far as the outcome is concerned, Wallace has no doubt that his compatriot will prevail, which is in stark contrast to the vast majority of McGregor’s MMA contemporaries.

“To be honest, I think Conor is on a different level, a lot crisper,” he said. “It’s kind of slaps that Diaz throws, and it’s not clean punching. I think it’s going to be all one-way traffic on Saturday night, and I just can’t see Diaz beating him.”

On a slightly less civilized note, Wallace was in attendance for Wednesday’s press event at the David Copperfield Theatre, which descended into an unsavory episode of bottle tossing – he did not come out unscathed.

“That’s me in the black T-shirt in the video (“UFC Embedded“), getting hit twice with a bottle,” he said. “It was some craic. First I was hit with a bottle of water and then a scalding cup of coffee, and my brother was there beside me. It was complete madness.”

For more on UFC 202, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.