By Scott Gilfoid: Floyd Mayweather Jr. is being helped by former Conor McGregor sparring partner Paulie Malignaggi to get some helpful tips to use to beat the UFC fighter on Saturday night. Malignaggi showed up at Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas, and Floyd is going to soak any knowledge he can get from the former 2 division world champion to help him defeat McGregor in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
I don’t know how much help Mayweather really needs for him to beat the brakes off of the 29-year-old McGregor. After all, this is the first time the UFC fighter will have ever fought in a boxing ring. I don’t count sparring with whoever was working with him. I’m talking about a real fight. McGregor is going to be up against it big time on Saturday. Whatever information Malignaggi gives Mayweather isn’t needed. Mayweather will figure out McGregor as the fight unwinds. This could be over with quickly unless Mayweather chooses to carry the Irish fighter.
“Paulie is going to stay at the house and talk about strategy. We are going to talk about everything. Don’t you worry,” said Mayweather to Fighthype.com. ” My friend [Malignaggi] called me and said ‘Floyd, do you want me to go to camp?’ and I said ‘Absolutely.’ Paulie, thank you for going over there like I asked you to do. He made it look good when he grabbed you and threw you down. That was a good one.”
So there it is. Malignaggi is going to help Mayweather with information on how to crack the McGregor code for Saturday night. I mean, how hard is it to beat a UFC fighter that has never boxed in his life? Whatever info Malignaggi gives Mayweather will largely be redundant. McGregor will likely bum rush Mayweather straight away on Saturday and try mug him against the ropes. It’s going to ugly and primitive.
The real question is was Malignaggi a spy for Mayweather the whole time? If Malignaggi intentionally went to McGregor’s game so he could learn his game plan for the mega-fight, and the relay that to Mayweather, it was a big mistake in Team McGregor in hiring him in that capacity. They should have realized the potential for information on the sparring sessions finding their way back to Mayweather.
Several weeks ago, Mayweather seemed to have knowledge about how McGregor plans on fighting him on August 26. Mayweather mentioned that he found out that McGregor plans on trying to confuse him by switching stances constantly during the fight. Mayweather sent a warning back to McGregor, telling him that he’s not going to have any success by changing stances repeatedly. He would have to come better than that.
The only thing that McGregor can do to try and beat Mayweather is to maul him, and stay close for the entire fight. McGregor can’t give Mayweather any space to get his punches off. That style if a variation of what Marcos Maidana did to Mayweather in their first fight. Maidana forced Mayweather against the ropes and unloaded on him for half of the fight until Mayweather took the fight to the center of the ring and easily won the last 6 rounds by boxing the Argentinian.
To be honest, I can’t see McGregor being able to smother Mayweather’s offense by using his MMA tricks. That primitive stuff won’t work without McGregor bending the rules by using excessive holding. Referee Robert Byrd, the guy official that has been assigned for the Mayweather-McGregor fight, won’t let McGregor hold continuously for 12 rounds without him taking points away from him.
