Floyd: There’s only one fight that’s important – Mayweather-McGregor

By Boxing News - 02/25/2017 - Comments

Image: Floyd: There’s only one fight that’s important – Mayweather-McGregor

By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. spoke to Showtime last Friday night, telling them that there’s only one fight out there that the fans career about seeing and that’s a boxing match between him and UFC star Conor McGregor. Mayweather says he wants to give the fans what they want to see in him facing the 28-year-old McGregor.

Mayweather was celebrating his 40th birthday last Friday. He fought in 2 years, and he’s been talking about wanting to fight McGregor close to that long. With Mayweather inactive from boxing, it’s becoming more than a little forlorn with him and McGregor talking about fighting each other but not doing so.

Initially, there was a lot of interest from MMA fans and to a certain extent boxing fans that have heard of McGregor, but it’s becoming something of a tired joke at this point. Mayweather really needs to either get the fight signed against McGregor or move on and fight someone that CAN fight him. The fact that Mayweather is inactive is not good for him and definitely not good for building up a fight against McGregor. With all the time that Mayweather has wasted in talking up a fight against McGregor for over 1 year now, he could have fought 2 to 3 times and made even more money than he’d have received in that fight. Mayweather wouldn’t have made as much money than he would against McGregor in a single fight, but he would still have made more money by fighting two or three times. That’s the strange thing about all of this. Mayweather would make more by just being active than he would in wasting years talking about a fight against McGregor, which might not ever happen.

Mayweather insists that he has no interest in fighting anyone else but McGregor. That’s probably not the smartest stance to have. With the fight with McGregor not happening and years going by one after another, Mayweather needs to at least fight so he can get his name out there rather than him name dropping McGregor’s name all the time and hoping that the boxing and MMA fans will show interest.

Former world champion Floyd Mayweather, who celebrated his 40th birthday yesterday, tells Showtime’s Steve Farhood that he still wants to fight MMA fighter Connor McGregor.

“Let’s give the fans what they want to see,” said Mayweather about a fight against McGregor. “There’s only one fight out there that’s important. That’s Mayweather and Connor McGregor. I felt like I did everything that I had to do in the sport. I still feel that way, but we just don’t know. For the right price, anything can happen. They threw the Conor McGegor name out there. We’ll just see. I’m here. Let’s make it happen,” said Mayweather.

I think Mayweather is dead wrong. I don’t think the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight is the one that the fans want to see. Maybe the MMA fans might have some interest in seeing Mayweather fight McGregor, but I don’t think the boxing fans want to see this fight. There are still a lot of boxing fans that have never seen McGregor fight before. Speaking about myself, I’ve only seen one of McGregor’s fights, and I was not impressed. McGregor got beat by Nate Diaz, and he didn’t look skilled with his stand up fighting. The fight ended with a lot of wrestling, and it was very boring to watch unless you like watching wrestling. I don’t. I don’t bother watching McGregor’s last two fights against Diaz and Eddie Alvarez. I doubt that the hardcore boxing fans bothered to see McGregor’s recent fights either.

If Mayweather vs. McGregor is going to be successful, it’s going to require the MMA fans to make it successful. I don’t think the boxing fans are going to want to spend their hard-earned money watching Mayweather beat up on a novice like McGregor, who has never fought before in a professional boxing ring. Mayweather would be asking the fans to pay their money to see him fight a guy with a 0-0 record. That’s not even a fair fight unless Mayweather ties one arm behind his back. Mayweather might as well be calling out a pro bowler or a golf star to fight, because it amounts to the same thing. McGregor stands no chance of beating Mayweather. Asking fans to pay to see a mismatch isn’t fair to the fans.

“Anytime Conor McGregor competes and wins, he does it standing up,” said Mayweather. “When Conor McGregor did lose, he lost on the ground. He didn’t lose standing up. He’s a hell of a fighter and a very, very tough competitor. He has a will to win. The UFC gloves are no different than boxing gloves. It does look a little bit smaller, but if a guy has got power, he’s got power and Conor McGregor has got power,” said Mayweather.

I don’t know how Mayweather can say that boxing gloves and the UFC gloves are almost the same. There’s a big difference between the gloves. The UFC gloves are really light in comparison to boxing gloves. When you get hit by shots from the lightly padded UFC gloves, it does more damage. McGregor is fighting a lot guys with minimal stand up skills in the UFC. These are guys from wrestling and mixed martial arts backgrounds. They know very little about boxing, and they mostly fight like they have no idea what they’re doing. McGregor is better than them at stand up fighting, but that doesn’t say much. We already saw how poor McGregor looked in sparring a professional boxer in Chris Van Heerden. It was totally one-sided. McGregor got schooled by Van Heerden.

When asked by Farhood if he still needs to be paid $100 million before he’ll fight, Mayweather said, “We don’t have to talk about that. We already know what my number is. My team and us, my number is there. He [McGregor] has to get his thing in order for his team. Once Conor McGregor speaks to the UFC and his bosses, then we can make it happen, because we already know Floyd Mayweather is his own boss. Let’s make the fight happen. Let’s give the fans the fight they want to see. There’s only one fight out there that’s important and that’s Mayweather and Conor McGregor,” said Mayweather.

UFC president Dana White keeps saying the Mayweather-McGregor fight isn’t going to happen. Nothing is changing from that angle. I don’t know why Mayweather keeps holding onto that fight. Has he lost his nerve when it comes to fighting actual boxers? Mayweather could be making good money fighting the likes of Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford, Miguel Cotto, Saul Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin. Fighting two or three of those guys per year for the last two years of his career, it would have made Mayweather a lot of money.

It makes no sense that Mayweather didn’t take those fights. For Mayweather to be continuously talking about fighting McGregor while leaving huge money on the table in fights that actually happen against boxers, it gives the impression that he just doesn’t get it. Fighting McGregor is not going to do anything to Mayweather’s legacy in my opinion. I think it’s going to hurt Mayweather’s legacy more than helping it, because it’s too much of a circus type of fight. It reminds me of when Muhammad Ali fought a Japanese wrestler named Antonio Inoki on June 26, 1976. Inoki came into the Ali fight with a record of 1-0. He spent much of the time kicking at Ali while lying on the canvas. The fight was ruled a 15 round draw, and there were a lot of angry boxing fans who paid to see it. Many of the fans that saw the fight live booed the results. Mayweather vs. McGregor reminds me a lot of the Ali-Anoki fight, because it’s not a fight that you call a real boxing fight. It’s more of a circus level fight or an exhibition.

In response to the question of whether the McGregor fight will actually happen, Mayweather said, “I Can’t really say. It’s been talked, but nothing has been signed with ink yet. Like I said before, I’m just waiting. Conor McGregor believes in himself. I believe in myself. He believes in his skills. I believe in my skills. He’s a lot younger, and he’s active. I’ve been on the shelf for a couple of years, so we’ll have to see. Tune in, it’s not over,” said Mayweather.

If Mayweather-McGregor fight is going to be successful, I think it’s going to require that the MMA fans being the reason for it. Mayweather is obviously counting on the UFC fans purchasing it in high numbers so it can make a lot of money. I see the boxing fans being wise to the fight being a poor mismatch between an unskilled McGregor and Mayweather. McGregor would be out of his league even if he fought a contender in the welterweight division right now in my view. The fans want to see Mayweather fight Pacquiao or Golovkin. They don’t want to have to pay to see Mayweather fight a novice like McGregor. It’s kind of sad that Mayweather is potentially going to end his boxing career with a circus fight against McGregor instead of a real boxer.