Consider me skeptical that Mayweather will be able to knock McGregor out. He’s never been knocked out, and he’s faced guys who can beat his ass on the ground or kick him or knee him in the head.
He’s never faced someone of Mayweather’s calibre either.
Not in pure boxing, but almost any of McGregor’s UFC opponents would beat Mayweather into a pulp and then break both his legs in a dark alley. I’m not sure a boxer with gloves, no matter how talented, is going to knock McGregor out, unless he has more punching power than McGregor’s tougher opponents, which I just don’t see, especially since Mayweather can’t rain punches down on him from a mounted position.
To me, MacGregor will be fighting a major opponent in this case: his own instincts.
Think about it, he’s trained for his entire career to use six weapons in various combinations - hands, knees, feet. Now he’s down 2/3s. Every time his instinct says, “Knee to kick to punch”, his brain has to say “No! Hands only!”.
Mayweather has no such problem. His instincts are all finely-honed to consider only his hands. And he (for all he’s a pretty terrible person) is one of the best ever in that arena. I mean, 49 professional boxers, many of them also at the top of their game have tried to break his defenses and none have succeeded.
I’m also curious as to where the “glass-jaw” Mayweather thing is coming from. He’s never been knocked out, so people seem to be assuming that just because he’s never taken a knock-out punch, he must be vulnerable to one. I don’t get it.
I agree with this. Without knowing the exact rules of the fight you have to believe that a boxing based bout will result in nothing but an easy Mayweather victory. A distinctly average pro level boxer versus one of the all time greats.
I like McGregor, but boxing versus Mayweather I don’t think he stands a chance. Mayweather’s record hardly speaks of someone who is vulnerable to someone with a hard punch and that is pretty much McGregor’s only asset in such a fight. I’d predict TKO in about round 3.
I agree. For that matter, they seem to be assuming he hasn’t taken some of those other 49 fighters’ “knock-out punch”, and it just didn’t knock him out. Anybody’s bell can be rung by random chance, but I dismiss the idea that he is about to get hit harder (or smarter) than he has ever been hit.
He has little need to knock Conor out either. I think he would only try if Conor obviously runs out of gas. He can just snooze right through 12 rounds with his perfect defense, ignoring 2/3 the skills Conor spent his life learning.
Can we all agree we would rather this was a MMA fight?
Just to see somebody try to pull Floyd’s head off like Nate Diaz did to Conor.
Is anybody here planning to give these assholes their money?
How about this scenario?
Mayweather knocks him around for 10 rounds and then McGregor roundhouse kicks Mayweather into the first row, losing in a DQ.
That’s a win-win in my books and the only way IMHO that McGregor comes away with anything that looks like a win.
Not as good as Mayweather losing but maybe the best outcome we can expect from this fight.
Be great if it turned out like the OP suggests and is a contest, but I kinda doubt it. MMA stand up striking and boxing look superficially similar, but the differences must be massive really - spacing, angles, footwork, movement etc - all in favour of Floyd to an overwhelming degree. Boxing on the inside, in particular, doesn’t seem to have an obvious parallel in MMA, although I guess you could say that is the one area that McGregor would be a quick study.
I read somewhere that the number of punches Mayweather landed in his last fight was similar to strikes dished out by McGregor in his. Don’t know if that is true [and how broadly strike is defined] - perhaps the MMA fans can comment? Would be atypical, but Floyd is definitely getting parsimonious with the fists in his old age. Used to let the hands go way more in his younger days.
I hardly have time to watch either MMA or Boxing anymore but I’ve been a devoted follower of both over the years. There’s no question that in a boxing ring, Mayweather should be the overwhelming favorite, but there are three factors that at least make a McGregor shocker remotely conceivable. Not necessarily in any order, they are the following:
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Age: Mayweather, as great as he is, is 40 years old and is in a state of gradual physical decline. His reflexes are slower and physical strength weaker than he was even a few years ago. McGregor, by contrast, is in his 20s and in right in his physical prime.
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McGregor’s natural power: Floyd is obviously no pansy but McGregor is just a beast, which brings me to #3
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Anyone can get KOd in a pugilistic contest. Boxing fans may remember a guy by the name of Ken Lakusta, who was an otherwise unremarkable fighter. He fought an older but still formidable George Foreman in the late 1980s. He lost but he also landed a punch that could have ended Foreman’s comeback. Out of nowhere, Lakusta landed a punch that wobbled Foreman and had everyone in the crowd either roaring or gasping depending on whom they were cheering for. Foreman eventually recovered and took Lakusta out in short order. But it goes to show anything can happen.
I think the big problem that I foresee for McGregor is that if he decides to swarm and press the action against Mayweather, it would probably only take a few good combinations to make him think twice of that strategy. Mayweather knows he defend himself in boxing, but I’m not sure that McGregor does. Even in his MMA fights, he likes to strike while standing upright, which would seem like a major vulnerability against a crafty fighter like Floyd.
Boxing? McGregor doesn’t stand a chance. Mayweather is an incredibly defensive boxer - McGregor’s not getting through that, plain and simple. It’s going to end up being a boring fight, with Mayweather letting McGregor wear himself out while landing just enough punches of his own to get the victory. McGregor doesn’t win without a knockout, and Mayweather doesn’t get knocked out.
McGregor wins in the octagon, with matching rules. Otherwise, Mayweather is going to make him look like a child.
I agree with most of this. I can’t understand those who say Mayweather would struggle to KO McGregor. It doesn’t take too many clean shots to KO someone other than those with the very best of chins. I think Mayweather landing almost at will is the most likely way the fight will pan out. It all depends on whether Mayweather smells a KO on the cards or is content with a points victory.
I don’t think Floyd will do anything to try to get a KO, he’ll just be waiting for McGregor to lead with his chin and drop him when the opportunity occurs. Otherwise he’ll be content to let the fight go the distance.
The biggest danger to a boxer is when they find themselves in strife and they revert to type. If that “type” is a style that favours the opponent then disaster can follow. With Mayweather I don’t see that danger.
Everyone will expect Mayweather to fight like Mayweather. Defensive, cautious and picking off regular clean shots. If he did that all the way through the fight he will win and people will say that that was exactly what was expected. His natural style is one that any non-boxer will find difficult to break down (as have pretty much all true boxers).
Now when McGregor gets under pressure from Mayweather what “type” will he revert to?
I expect it will be to come forward and leave himself exposed with Mayweather happy to deal in jabs and uppercuts as the opportunity arises.
Reports that the fight has been finalized for Aug 26th.
https://sports.yahoo.com/floyd-mayweather-conor-mcgregor-fight-finalized-aug-26-205101486.html
Not sure how they’re gonna do this on that date at T-Mobile Arena; there’s already an event scheduled for that day.
The AP has picked up the story now.
TMA is partly owned by MGM so I guess what they’ll try and do is move the Big3 Championship to the MGM Grand Garden Arena (seats 17k, opened in 1993) to free up TMA (seats 20k, opened in 2016) for the fight. I hope the Big3 folks get a shitload of money refunded to them or something to compensate. People will have already made arrangement to stay at NYNY or the Monte Carlo which are right next to TMA. I’ve done gigs in both and TMA is much nicer than MGM GGA, too, so it’s definitely a downgrade for the Big3 folks.
Assuming Mayweather wins, would his record move up to 50-0 or would he still be at 49-0 on the theory that McGregor is not a “real” boxer?
It has to be some kind of event sanctioned by Nevada Athletic Commission. I assume it will be conducted as a boxing match with a boxing referee and it will count on his record. It’s not like there’s any single authority on what constitutes a boxing record, although in most of the US and the world if the NAC says his record is 50-0 then that’s what they would agree with.