Mayweather vs. McGregor = Another fail for Floyd

By Boxing News - 05/15/2016 - Comments

floyd9By Jeff Aranow: Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he’s interested in coming back to the ring for a nine-figure payday against UFC fighter Conor McGregor in what he says will be a boxing match. First off, a fight against McGregor will be lucky if it brings in 500,000 PPV buys because McGregor isn’t a star in the sport of boxing and he clearly wouldn’t have a clue what to do in the ring against Mayweather or any fighter in the sport.

Without a HUGE handicap to give McGregor a chance, he’ll be embarrassed by Mayweather and the boxing fans will be upset for having shelled out a lot of cash to see this farce. For Mayweather Jr. to have a chance of getting a nine-figure payday, the PPV prices will need to be through the roof in the $100 range just like they were for his fight against Manny Pacquiao last year in May 2015.

A fight between Mayweather and McGregor is too of a mismatch to fool a massive amount of people into buying the thing. The get money out of the fight the price for the PPV will need to be extraordinarily high. That in turn is going to hurt the sport of boxing in my opinion because when the fight runs out to be a mismatch with Mayweather dominating McGregor from start to finish.

Mayweather is picking the wrong UFC fighter if he wants to get attention for his next fight. At least he could have selected the guy that just beat McGregor in his last fight in Nate Diaz. Mayweather wants to pick up win No.50, but by selecting a non-boxer for that fight, he’s turning it into a circus like fight that few knowledgeable boxing fans will take seriously.

Mayweather would be better off with his previous idea of facing WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia for his 50th win rather than selecting a UFC fighter with rudimentary boxing skills. Everyone knows that the MMA fighter aren’t good enough to beat high level boxers. Those type of fighters come from wrestling backgrounds and they’re like fish out of water when they fight someone that has been boxing their entire lives. It would be the same thing if Mayweather or any top fighter tried their sport. They would have a chance to score a knockout while they’re in the standup position, but if they failed to do that, they would get taken down and put into a submission hold or pounded put.

“But do I think the fight will happen? Absolutely. We’re the A-side of course,” said Mayweather about a fight against McGregor. “It has to be a boxing match, because most fights that Conor McGregor won inside the Octagon, he was a stand-up guy. So I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a tough fight for me. Hopefully we can make the fight happen. He’s no pushover. One thing about Conor McGregor, he’s no pushover. He fell short in his last bout, but a true champion can always bounce back. We haven’t picked a venue; we haven’t talked about money yet. I’m going to get $100 million, of course. Every time I get in the squared circle, it’s $100 million or better,” said Mayweather.

The fight fans have little interest in seeing Mayweather fight McGregor in his comeback. The fans want to see Mayweather fight Gennady Golovkin or the winner of the Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter fight. Some fans want to see Mayweather fight Manny Pacquiao or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Those would be casual boxing fans who either can’t remember Mayweather’s wins over those fighters or simply don’t care because they know a handful of a fighters in the sport and those are them.

Golovkin is the best option because it would give Mayweather a chance to cement his legacy as one of the greats. A great fighter from the past would definitely take on a fighter like Golovkin rather than handpicking a beaten guy from another sport like McGregor. Mayweather choosing not to fight Golovkin would only further the view that some fans have about Mayweather being a career-long cherry picker, who failed to fight guys like Paul Williams, Antonio Margarito, Thurman, Tim Bradley, Shawn Porter and Golovkin.

Mayweather coming back to take an unskilled fighter like McGregor will sit back in the minds of a lot of fans. Canelo will be stuck risking his neck fighting Golovkin while Mayweather fights someone that pretty much any top 15 contender would have an easy time with in fighting McGregor. Even non-ranked fighters would likely beat McGregor in a boxing match. That’s just the way it is. You can’t take a guy from different sport and expect them to beat a boxer that has been doing it since they were teenagers. Unless McGregor and pull off some of his wrestling moves, he’s going to be destroyed by anyone in a boxing ring. It won’t take Mayweather to do a number on McGregor.