Kavanagh explained that the game plan was to try and survive the early rounds, before winning the latter rounds.
Many fans and pundits believed that the longer the fight went on, the more chance Khabib had, and that if it went early, it would go to McGregor.
The Irishman knocked out Jose Aldo in 12 seconds in 2015, and defeated Eddie Alvarez in the second round in 2016, and many believed he would not have the stamina to compete with Nurmagomedov in the latter rounds.
Kavanagh explained, however, that the game plan was always to take the fight later, as they knew early takedowns would come.
He also stated he was surprised when Khabib dropped McGregor early in the second round.
“The right hand in the second round was a cracker, it was beautiful,” Kavanagh said.
“That was a great shot.
“The style of takedowns is what we expected.
“The goal of round one was to get out of it, and still have energy.
“For round two, the plan was the same, to do as much damage as we can.”
Kavanagh admitted that he knew Nurmagomedov would have the advantage when it came to the grappling.
The majority of the fight was spent on the floor, before Nurmagomedov forced McGregor to tap in the fourth round.
“(Khabib is) an absolute master at re-grounding people,” Kavanagh said.
“Round three things started turning in our favour.
“The consensus was that if it ends early, it’ll be Conor, but if it goes later, it’ll be Khabib.
“So, for us to win the third round was a little bit of a surprise to people.”