How profoundly poignant it was that, at the launch of a book entitled “Win or Learn,” Conor McGregor and John Kavanagh consistently, and often without prompting, made somber reference to the most devastating defeat of their decade-long partnership.

Almost four months have passed since Nate Diaz (19-10 MMA, 14-8 UFC) ruthlessly strangled McGregor (19-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) into submission at UFC 196.

In the dying embers of the second round of the main event bout at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, Diaz locked in the rear-naked choke heard ’round the world, and the UFC featherweight champion was compelled to contemplate a loss for the first time in close to six years.

Read more: Conor McGregor: I'll toy with Nate Diaz at our rematch

While it was not quite an upset of the same proportions as Holly Holm’s usurping of Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 last November, the Californian, on just 11 days’ notice, had conjured a seismic shock.The Herald:

Of course, McGregor had originally been slated to face lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos for the opportunity to become the first man ever to concurrently hold two UFC titles, but the Brazilian was forced to withdraw with a foot injury.

Diaz was then drafted in, a makeshift welterweight contest was made, and the rest, as they say, is history. Yet the post-mortem to ascertain how Diaz overcame a fighter allegedly enjoying the advantage in speed, power and, indeed, preparation time, has still to be filed away. This might be down to the fact that the initially scheduled rematch for UFC 200 was canceled because McGregor refused to leave a training camp in Iceland to attend a promotional event in Las Vegas.

And, now, anticipation for their headlining bout at UFC 202 at the T-Mobile Arena in Sin City is higher than ever.

Kavanagh described the writing of his recently released autobiography, “Win or Learn,” as an exercise in reflection, and one might venture he deliberated longest on the events of March 5.

The SBG Ireland head coach admitted that they had brazenly overlooked Diaz. Simply put, after a whirlwind 2015 during which McGregor won the interim featherweight title at the expense of Chad Mendes at UFC 189 – and then unified the belts by dispatching of Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds at UFC 194 – they exhaled and then engaged in some ill-advised hubris.

“The Aldo fight was such a big result for the gym and the country, that we all took the foot off the pedal,” he told MMAjunkie. “Then you’re straight into another one, and it’s hard to explain the mindset at the time, but it was a bit of a circus, almost like it was a pretend fight.The Herald: Conor McGregor says he has not retired

“It was kind of like, ‘Ah, you’ll just hit him once and he’ll go down and then we’ll carry on with the journey and get ready for the dos Anjos fight, because that’s important.’

“Then that loss made us all take a step back and re-evaluate things. The book was the same sort of thing because my life has been jumping from one event to the next, and this sort of forced me to do that.”

One can’t help arrive at the conclusion that, while occupying such a mindset, dos Anjos also would have disposed of McGregor with similar decisiveness.

In between training sessions at the SBG facility, McGregor arrived at Dublin’s Mansion House to pay tribute to his coach but, just beforehand, Kavanagh would explain the immediacy with which his star pupil sought to unfurl exactly how Diaz prevailed.

In the backstage area after the loss, McGregor was handed a mobile phone showing an illegal stream of the contest and, even in the presence of UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, the 27-year-old began his analysis.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of McGregor’s response to the loss is how he has broken with a long held SBG tenet of never tailoring a training camp to an opponent’s specific attributes. He’s often described would-be foes as faceless collections of anatomy to be deconstructed with a surgeon’s precision.

Last month in California, McGregor sparred with former IBF intercontinental welterweight boxing champion Chris van Heerden who, like Diaz, is a long, lean left hander. Furthermore, he drafted in Conor Wallace, a multiple-time Irish national boxing champion, to put in some rounds at SBG. Wallace, too, has very similar dimensions to Diaz.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Dillon Danis has been flown in from New York to address McGregor’s ground game, which remains a great source of skepticism and, quite often, derision.

“I’m working my nuts off for this rematch,” McGregor said at the event. “The reason why we don’t pay too much attention to the opponent is because they always pull out, but I know Nate is going to show up.

“We know we’re going to be facing a tall, lanky southpaw with a decent lead hand. Now I’ve brought in tall, lanky southpaws with a solid lead hand and other guys with strong jiu-jitsu credentials, and John is overseeing the whole thing.”

With regards to what went wrong back in March, McGregor, for all his bravado, has been thoroughly contemplative.

The Dubliner revealed that, in the absence of a grueling weight cut, he threw caution to the wind upon Diaz replacing dos Anjos, and the bout being contested at welterweight.

“I was over-trained, my diet wasn’t good, and it came back and bite me in the ass. I’m staying on my nutrition. I’m very fight-orientated. I’m not swinging out of gymnastic rings too much, and I certainly won’t be doing it the week of the fight.

“To see the way that last fight happened, I can’t live with it. I need to isolate myself and come back and get my revenge.”