By Allan Fox: Trainer Freddie Roach says UFC star Conor McGregor isn’t much of a fighter in terms of his boxing skills. Roach, who trains Manny Pacquiao, sees McGregor as little more than a 4-round fighter at this point. Roach says he was told by boxer Chris Van Heerden that he “killed” McGregor during a sparring session they had.
Roach makes it clear that he doesn’t think much of the 28-year-old McGregor when it comes to his boxing skills. That doesn’t bode well for McGregor’s chances inside the ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr. when these two stars fight each other under the rules of boxing on August 26 on Showtime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“He’s fun to watch. He’s a character, but again, he’s not much of a fighter,” said trainer Freddie Roach o Fighthub about McGregor.
As a standup fighter in the UFC, the southpaw McGregor usually throws jabs and looks to nail his opponents with counter left hands as they rush forward. McGregor isn’t an aggressive or a particularly busy fighter. He’s not anther Adonis Stevenson when it comes to his southpaw skills. It’s mostly just short punches thrown by McGregor. Those kinds of shots work in the UFC because the gloves are thin and McGregor is facing guys with even less boxing skills them himself.
“As far as boxing goes, supposedly he went out to Wildcard West and boxed Chris Van Heerden. Van Heerden told me, “I killed him.’ Chris Van Heerden is a tough kid, a good boxer. He put himself in a high class. I think he’s a 4-round fighter at this point,” said Roach about McGregor.
From the clips I’ve seen, Van Heerden didn’t look like he gave McGregor a beat down in their sparring session. It looked like Van Heerden did a lot of moving and catching McGregor with jabs to the head. McGregor had a bad habit of fighting with his hands down by his sides, and he was using a wide stance much of the time, which hurt his ability to deal with the mobility of Van Heerden.
A wide stance is used when a fighter is facing someone that is stationary. Van Heerden wasn’t stationary, so McGregor kept catching jabs to the head repeatedly. McGregor looked like he didn’t have any idea what he was doing. He was switching stances a lot, hoping to confuse Van Heerden. It wasn’t working. Van Heerden didn’t look confused. He kept hitting McGregor with shots regardless of what stance he was using.
When told that Mikey Garcia said McGregor is a beginning amateur level fighter at best, Roach said, “I think Mikey can get away with saying it, because I think Mikey would kick his [expletive]. Sure, I think there’s some stiffs out there. We’ve dug them up before. [McGregor would beat] nobody of note though,” said Roach.
It would be fun to see how well McGregor would do against a lightweight like Mikey Garcia before he faced Mayweather. McGregor would have a big weight advantage over Mikey. I don’t think it would help McGregor one bit. I see him getting dominated badly and knocked out. The one thing that really hurts McGregor going into his fight with Mayweather is his lack of experience inside a boxing ring. McGregor will be stepping into the ring with a 0-0 record against Mayweather. It’s no different than any pedestrian off the street get inside the ring with Mayweather after a years’ training. It would be a massacre. You can’t turn an average person into a fighter that can be competitive with Mayweather after a year of training. McGregor is hopelessly over-matched in this fight.
Teddy Atlas says the fans have been warned about Mayweather-McGregor being a potentially bad fight
Trainer and ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas says the fans have had suitable warnings about the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight winding up as a really poor fight. Atlas says this is a different situation than Mayweather’s 2015 fight against Manny Pacquiao, which was advertised as being a fight that would be filled with exciting action. There weren’t warnings ahead of time that Mayweather-Pacquiao would be a stinker not worth the high asking price. When the fight turned out to be a disappointment due to the lack of action, the boxing fans reacted angrily with many of them choosing not to purchase other PPV events that have come after. Atlas says the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao hurt boxing by making fans not want to purchase other events in the sport. Atlas believes things might be different with Mayweather-McGregor because the fans have been warned ahead of time that the fight will be a bad one.
“There’s plenty of a warning out there saying that this guy isn’t a professional fighter now,” said Teddy Atlas via Octagon News about Conor McGregor. “It’s an event. It’s a Super Bowl type. He’s not a professional fighter. People are being warned. Floyd’s done more good to the sport than harm. That last fight hurt. He’s brought eyeballs to the sport. Floyd doesn’t make exciting fights. Floyd wins, but he wins on his terms. They’re usually not electrifying fights; boxing fights, defense oriented fights. That’s usually how he wins. So you got that in there on top of that. Besides, you got a guy in there who is pedestrian. Really, he’s not a pro when it comes to the sport. So you got that going against it.” said Atlas about McGregor.
The one thing that the fans might not realize is how boring McGregor is as a fighter. He’s not someone that is going to be looking to put his chin on the line in order to throw a lot of shots, which is how you beat Mayweather. The only guys that gave Mayweather problems during his boxing career thus far has been high volume punchers Marcos Maidana and Jose Luis Castillo. Both guys threw a lot of shots at Mayweather, and they gave him all kinds of problems. McGregor’s slow fighting style of perfect for Mayweather. It’s going to be easy for Mayweather to deal with McGregor. It’s also likely going to be a very boring fight due to the styles of both fighters.
Obviously, Teddy Atlas doesn’t think too much about McGregor and his chances of winning this fight. Atlas is right about Mayweather not being an exciting fighter. He’s facing a counter puncher in McGregor, who doesn’t throw a lot of punches in his UFC fights. McGregor sits back and waits to take advantage of his opponents when they charge in looking to land their shots. It works for McGregor though due to the level of his opposition. We’re talking about McGregor fighting wrestler type fighters, who lack the knowledge about boxing to know how to deal with McGregor’s stand up skills.
”You’ve got Floyd when he’s at his best, he’s a defensive genius,” said Atlas. “He does not make scintillating fights. He does the opposite of that. They’re going to sell this on McGregor being a cyclone. McGregor is going to be a heat-seeking missile. His temperament is closer to Floyd’s. When I watch those fights, I said, ‘this guy is a smart, clever, careful, calculating guy. This guy is a counter puncher.’ He does what Floyd does, but he’s not at the same level, but he’s got the same mentality. Now the reality is you’ve got 2 counter punchers in there. You’ve got 2 guys that are careful,” said Atlas in talking about Mayweather and McGregor.
