If you’re one of the many uneducated fight fans who only watch combat sports when the marquee 1% of fighters are on the headline, then you probably believe Mayweather vs. McGregor isn’t going to be competitive.
You’re wrong.
Not only will Mayweather vs. McGregor be competitive but Conor McGregor may even win this fight. I don’t care if Mayweather is 49-0 or if McGregor has never had a professional boxing match. Conor McGregor has all the tools to win this fight.
Gallagher on getting compared to @TheNotoriousMMA: getting compared the GOAT? The man who will knock out Floyd? I'll take that all day.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 25, 2017
If you’re basing your opinion of McGregor’s skills off the training footage and you’ve seen in the build up to make this fight happen, re-think your analysis. What you’re watching is practice. In the words of Allen Iverson, we’re talking about practice.
If you’ve ever played any sport, you know that you’re never at your best in practice. You don’t know the plays, you’re trying stuff out, and you’re working on particular situations that work on a specific skill.
The same is said for combat sports. Coaches will intentionally instruct a fighter not throw a particular punch or not use an individual move to work on developing other aspects of their game. So what may look like a fighter who doesn’t know what he’s doing could be said fighter working on a new game plan.
That would be like watching your favorite quarterback throw an interception in practice and say that he sucks simply because he tried to force a pass to see if his receiver was capable of making that type of play.
Sparring today pic.twitter.com/976HsLAuKb
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) June 24, 2017
As I’ve stated before, McGregor may be 0-0 as a professional boxer but he is still a professional fighter who trains in boxing for a living. So it’s not exactly like he’s bringing a knife to a gunfight. He will be fully loaded, looking to drop that left hand upon Mayweather’s chin.
In fact, I would argue that Conor might even have certain advantages over Floyd in this match. For example, you could argue that Mayweather will have issues with McGregor’s dirty boxing. If Floyd tries to clinch with Conor against the ropes, who do you believe is going to have the advantage? I’d say the grappler.
Granted, Conor isn’t going to be able to use the under hooks as he would in MMA, but don’t be so brash to believe that Floyd won’t struggle in that position. McGregor is much bigger and knows what he’s doing in the clinch. That’s an MMA fighter’s world right there.
The other argument I hear is that McGregor has never gone 12 rounds. So what? I’d argue going five rounds in MMA is harder than going 12 in boxing. Not only are MMA rounds 5 minutes long in comparison to boxing’s 3, but in MMA you’ve got to spend the majority of your energy on grappling. Conor will have no problem going the distance regarding his gas tank when he doesn’t have to defend the takedown.
Here at the @mcgregorsfast institute of athlete performance, we are busy preparing for our finest hour. pic.twitter.com/vP36X5maSv
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) June 24, 2017
The other area in which Conor has an advantage is KO power. Only one of these fighters is a finisher and his name isn’t Floyd Mayweather. The last time Floyd finished a fight was against Victor Ortiz in 2011. The time before that he fought Ricky Hatton in 2007.
Whereas McGregor had knocked out 7 of his opponents since 2013 when he made his UFC debut. He also has another 11 knockouts from 2008–2012. So in about the same timeline 2007-present, Floyd has two knockouts to Conor’s 18. You’re going to convince yourself that McGregor doesn’t even have a puncher’s chance?
Stop.
I’m not trying to argue that McGregor is a better boxer than Mayweather, but combat sports are about matchups. The better boxer or the better fighter doesn’t always win. I think McGregor has the tools to make this a competitive fight.
Who knows, maybe in another article I’ll even try to convince you why McGregor will win the damn thing.
But until then.
