By Scott Gilfoid: Former super middleweight world champion Carl Froch says Conor McGregor has a real chance of pulling off the upset of Floyd Mayweather Jr. on August 26. Froch, 40, thinks that the combination of Mayweather’s age, inactivity and McGregor’s youth, ambition, confidence could spell doom for the “Money” man in this fight.
McGregor is at the top of his sport in the UFC, beating everyone with ease and working hard. On the flipside, Mayweather has been taking it easy, blowing money left and right and living high on the hog with the millions he’s made inside the ring and with his smart investments.
“That’s one of my biggest concerns with Floyd Mayweather,” said Froch to BBC Sports. “He’s been out of the ring for 2 years. He’ fighting Conor McGregor, and everyone is expecting him to win. McGregor is 29, he’s young, he’s hungry, he’s confident, and he’s martial arts. But Mayweather could come unstuck early and get caught with something, and that’s the big concern,” said Froch.
I don’t see McGregor winning this fight. What Froch says certainly makes sense, and you can deny that McGregor has a chance. It would be the perfect storm. All these things coming together at once to cause Mayweather to implode on August 26 against McGregor in their fight on Showtime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. McGregor would have to catch Mayweather early in the fight with one of his big shots, as Froch says, for him to have a good chance of winning. If McGregor doesn’t get Mayweather early, he’s going to get too beaten up and worn down in the later rounds. It won’t be possible for him to pull off the upset at that point.
Both fighters want 8oz gloves for the fight. If the Nevada State Athletic Commission agrees to let Mayweather and McGregor wear 8oz gloves, then this fight is not going to last long. McGregor would have a chance of winning with those kinds of gloves. Mayweather will carve McGregor up if the fight goes past the 6th. Mayweather’s natural speed advantage will be enhanced with 8oz gloves. It’ll be a terribly one-sided fight.
I’ve already ordered the Mayweather-McGregor fight and I’m looking forward to seeing it. It’s a nice car wreck type of fight.
Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) says he’s not interested in making a comeback to boxing, saying to BBC Sport that it would be “dangerous” for him to make a comeback. It’s been 3 years since Froch last fought in beating George Groves by an 8th round knockout on May 31, 2014 in front of 80,000 boxing fans at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Froch just turned 40-years-old on July 2. He has no interest in returning to the ring. Froch weighs almost 200 lbs. now, and he would need to lose 20 lbs. for him to have a chance of competing against the top fighters in the super middleweight division. Sadly, Froch could probably still beat Groves even now with a good training camp under his belt. But there would be no point in Froch fighting Groves again unless he wins the World Boxing Super Series that he’s currently competing in.
If Groves wins the series, then he’s going to be considered by many boxing fans as the best fighter in the 168lb division. It would be a perfect time for Froch to come back and put Groves back in his place for yet another time. Groves still wouldn’t be the best in the division in my opinion, because champions James DeGale and Gilberto Ramirez would still be out there as viable threats to him.
Former welterweight champion Andre Berto also believes that McGregor has a chance of beating Mayweather by knockout. Berto lost to Mayweather by a one-sided decision 2 years ago in 2015, but he still believes McGregor has a chance of beating him.
”He’s really there to fight,” Berto said to The MMA Hour about McGregor. “And somewhat trying to steal the stage from Floyd just with his antics and get Floyd into a mind-game situation, have him pulling some type of mistakes and then catch [Mayweather] with a big shot, and [McGregor] could stop him.”
McGregor could stop Mayweather, but it’s so unlikely that it’s hardly worth mentioning. What McGregor has going against him in being seen as a viable threat to Mayweather is his lack of experience inside the ring. If McGregor had at least had the foresight to take at least one fight against a top level fighter to show the boxing and MMA public that he has the talent to beat Mayweather, then I think he would be seen as having more of a chance of winning. But the hurried way that the fight was thrown together, it just has ‘money grab’ written all over it. That’s what I don’t like about the Mayweather-McGregor fight.
I’m a big fan of Mayweather, but I do not like the way he handpicked McGregor to fight based on his popularity. Mayweather found a fighter from another sport that is very popular and bringing in consistently high PPV numbers and he setup a fight with him. I don’t like the way Mayweather did that. It’s like Mayweather took advantage of McGregor’s popularity to hitch a ride on his coattails. It would be like Mayweather setting up a fight against NFL quarterback Tom Brady after he won the Super Bowl. Fans would likely pay to see Mayweather fight Brady, but that doesn’t mean the fight would be a real one or worth watching.
“It’s either Conor catches him early, finishes him or Floyd is going to outbox him and make him look silly and embarrass him,” said Berto.
Berto seems to have the Mayweather-McGregor fight figured out. I agree with him. If McGregor is going to win, it’ll be early before Mayweather has figured him out. Once Mayweather has analyzed McGregor’s style and knows how to defeat him, it’s no longer going to be a fight. It’ll be a slaughter at that point. I hope Mayweather makes it interesting and gets McGregor out of there, because I don’t want to see him landing jabs all night long like we saw in the Manny Pacquiao, Saul Canelo Alvarez and Andre Berto fights.