Updated 15 May 2017
Earlier this year, we postulated that if a long-rumored boxing-style bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor ever became a reality, McGregor would get his clock cleaned (an opinion shared by legendary boxing trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas, mind you).
Big news: according to a new report from ESPN, it looks like we’re all going to have a chance to find out. UFC president Dana White told the four-letter network that McGregor has “agreed” to a deal to face Mayweather in a boxing match and that “a bunch of lawyers” are now looking over the deal. Once that agreement — which will reportedly pay McGregor in excess of $75 million — gets the greenlight, White will present the deal to Mayweather adviser Al Haymon and Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe. While there’s no guarantee Mayweather will say yes, he’ll have about 100 million reasons to so.
Stay tuned …
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If reports from The Irish Sun and ESPN hold water, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor are “very close” to coming to terms on a fight that could be announced in the next two weeks. And that — if you’re a fan of not getting ripped off — is a bad thing.
Let’s call spades spades: McGregor has no shot of winning a boxing match against Mayweather, who was 49-0 with 26 knockouts over a 20-year career that ended (allegedly) in 2015. In fact, the implication that he has even a sniff of a chance at taking out the five-time world champ is insulting to both fighters and the public in general.
It’s not because McGregor isn’t tough (he is) or fast (he is) or even because he can’t box (he got his license last year). Rather, it’s because McGregor is a professional mixed martial artist but an amateur boxer, and it’s flat-out ludicrous to think an amateur can succeed where Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao and hordes of other future hall-of-famers have failed. And Mayweather isn’t just a great boxer — he’s a great technical boxer. If he doesn’t wanna get hit, he doesn’t get hit. Simply going in with the mindset that he’ll fold if you crack him in the mouth won’t work, because that mouth ain’t getting cracked, by McGregor or anyone else.
Since it’s damn near impossible to knock him out, the only area where 28-year-old McGregor would have a chance of defeating his 39-year-old opponent is on points and, all due respect to his boxing skills, he sorely lacks the experience in a four-sided ring to make that happen. To win, all Mayweather will have to do is get in a few shots in and dance — like he did on the TV show.
The whole thing is a $100-million-apiece cash grab (the amount both fighters have said they want if they’re going to go into the ring together) masquerading as a once-in-a-lifetime boxing match. Poorly.
If you wanna see a fight, petition the organizers and tell them to devise a rule set that combines MMA and boxing into a neutral, Frankensteinian whole that doesn’t give one fighter a massive advantage.
Otherwise, go watch Charlie Day take on Ice Cube in Fist Fight. It’s no more scripted.
Mayweather photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images/ McGregor photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
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