Talking The Truth – Floyd Mayweather vs. Connor McGregor

By Boxing News - 07/27/2017 - Comments

Image: Talking The Truth - Floyd Mayweather vs. Connor McGregor

By Sean Griffin: This upcoming Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight has captured the imaginations of so many people in both the boxing community and the mixed martial arts community. It has also angered a lot of fans as well, but the thing that struck me most was all the unfair coverage or opinions surrounding the fight. It’s either extreme, you either think Floyd will put on a boxing masterclass and Connor has no chance or Connor is going to blast him out of there. I believe I fit firmly in the middle of both those camps and have looked at both sides of the coin and think this fight might be more interesting and closer than you think. Let me tell you why.

First off let’s start off with “the A side”. Floyd Mayweather has a perfect boxing record of 49 wins and zero loses. In the 49 wins he has accumulated 26 KOs. So he isn’t the biggest punchers but a 53% knockout percentage isn’t bad either.

But when we talk about Floyd we don’t think about the big knockouts we talk about his record and who he has been in with and beaten. Names like Miguel Cotto, Arturo Gatti, Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Oscar De Le Hoya, Marcos Maidana, Shane Mosley, and Ricky Hatton, the list is endless. And some of those fighters and fiercely big punchers and yet they either couldn’t land a glove on Floyd or not clean enough to hurt him (apart from one punch from Mosley). So how will Conor land shots on a man who is known for having one of the best defences of all time.

Well we have to say age may become a factor here. At 40 years old will Mayweather’s legs still be able to move as quick as they once did. Will his hands still move as fast. Will his reactions still be sharp enough to slip the punches. Honestly I’m not so sure, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mayweather gets hit with more shots in this fight then he has been hit before. Let’s not forget that a two year lay off is an extremely long time in the fight game and that sort of lay off has ended other fighters careers so who knows how it’ll affect him. And lastly I do believe (especially after the press World tour) that McGregor has got into Mayweather’s head like no one has before. Will this affect how Floyd fights? Well we won’t know until that bell rings.

Right now let’s look at Conor McGregor. With a mixed martial arts record of 24 fights, 21 wins but a massive 18 of those wins being knockouts that shows this man does have power. But the other thing that sticks out is the fact he has those 3 loses on his record which were all submission defeats. Now you could look at that and say well he’s never been knocked out to lose which will bode well for him in a boxing ring or you can say using Floyd’s words “he’s a quitter”.

Now we all know McGregor has quick feet, quick hands and power to boot but does he have the boxing ability to fight one of the greatest ever? Again this is a question that we won’t know the answer till until it’s fight night. We can’t trust what we are hearing out of the camps so we won’t know until the day. I think Connor is going to be a lot better than people think he will be and with that quick movement and punching from awkward angles could really help him a lot in this bout.

Now although Floyd has beaten every style that has come up against him they were all boxing styles. Connor will come into this with a brand new style of boxing with a dash of flair and hint of MMA never seen before in the ring so how will Floyd prepare for this? He can try to watch tapes of Connors fights but they will all be MMA fights so will that really work for analysis? Where as Connor has 49 previous fights that he can watch, analyze, and devise a plan on how to beat Mayweather. And the one thing about Conor McGregor is you know him and his team already have a plan and punch combinations worked out for this fight that they believe will get them the big KO.

So I suppose the question is who do I think is going to win? In all honesty I am not sure. I do believe it’ll be closer than a lot of people think. I definitely think the early rounds will go to Conor but I think if he isn’t careful he may start to gas from the middle stage onwards and Floyd will take over. If this fight goes to the scorecards then it’ll be nothing but a Floyd win. For boxing I want Floyd to win but I also want to see what would happen if Connor manages to pull it off. And let’s not count out the fact that he could land just one big shot and let’s face it we all know that’s all it takes sometimes.