So glad this fight happens!
Trump won, MMA’s and boxing’s biggest stars will clash, I guess now only North Korea has to invade Red Dawn style.
Such a weird but ultimately grandiose spectacle!
And I love the shitty, elitist attitude from boxing fans.
What will they do when Conor won’t simply melt in the first few rounds?
Right, “he’s toying with him”.
Roooight.
The match makes sense from every angle except that fans will never get to see Floyd versus GGG. Also good: if the PPV record gets smashed to bits, the tears will never dry: Combat forums all over the world will experience a mandatory Irish history month.
The fight itself, from a technical point of view, is fairly simple although the possibilities branch more heavily than boxing-peons would like to believe.
Clearly, the favorite is Prettyboy.
However, the raging leprechaun has youth, height, size & mass, reach, ego and wrestling in his favour. Some of these are actually quite important, namely: youth, height, size & mass, reach, ego and wrestling.
Oh and he’s a southpaw!
In our little forum, we’ve enjoyed many lively debates about prime Fedor versus trans-Croc-odiles but the REAL man-beast debate was about Floyd versus the Ronda.
Many commentators failed to understand how easy it is to tie up with a boxer and how shitty their clinch often is.
Now Floyd may knock the blond hammyweight silly when attempting to grapple or not. Who knows ( I guess we’ll find out when Kim Jong Un’s paratroopers raise the Ramhongsaek Konghwagukgi over the Madison Square Garden).
But one guy won’t have a problem taking a breather if he feels like it - and that is the long handed Irish. Just as the Klitschkos loved to pummel from a distance and rest their long, white, slavic torsos for a bit on a less and less struggling meatstool when things got too hooky.
Same with fookin McGregor: he’ll try to make it revolve around long powershots and nothing else.
Against almost all the rest of lighter boxing elite, Ireland would have to take a dive with this strategy.
Canelo, who’s met defeat by Mayweather’s brittle hands, would smother Conor. Even Pacman would overwhelm and abuse the slick superfight-merchant.
But Mayweather is an extremely cautious pugilist and prefers to react lightning quick to openings while controlling bouts most of the time via a retreating jab.
Summa summarum, it’ll look like this:
Maybe there will be some initial sparks, but after a minute, both will be cautious and lay out a few traps. Conor can’t blow his wad and Mayweather cannot risk to dump his legacy down the toilet.
The real interesting part begins around the fourth round.
McGregor has the best chance to land his left when the initial freshness and jitteryness wore off and Mayweather still has not fully digested the Straight Blast Sean nos - but he will work the body at this point, which in this fight is a total no brainer:
MMA fighters spar all the time against heavier guys. Rest assured, McGregor has been hit by more powerful dudes than Mayweather (it’s as ridiculous as thinking endurance will be an issue). But boxers are the best guys at taking bodyblows, maybe together with Kyokushinkaikan. It’s simply not as prudent in MMA.
Combined with McGregor’s stance we can expect golden Philipp Plein gloves knocking more on a green Versace waistband than on 8oz Ralph Laurens.
If McGregor can connect here a bit and survive all rounds, he has already won, sortoff.
Boxing will make this into a hysterical “he can’t even beat a retired 40-year old!” but it will be embarrassing.
Still, such a scenario is not a safe bet.
Also, depending on the ref, McGregor can clinch himself with a sore liver to a decision like a Pancrase fighter who’s rope escaping a heelhook.
In that case, the boxing community will have a point.
