Mayweather-McGregor: Will Conor’s weight advantage help him?

By Boxing News - 08/26/2017 - Comments

Image: Mayweather-McGregor: Will Conor’s weight advantage help him?

By Sean Jones: Conor McGregor weighed in 4 pounds more than Floyd Mayweather Jr. at last Friday’s weigh-in for their fight tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Moments getting off the scale, McGregor proudly informed the media that he’ll be at least 170 lbs. during the fight. Mayweather weighed in 149 ½ lbs. and looking much smaller than the 153 lb. McGregor.

If what McGregor says is true about him coming into the fight in the 170s, he’s going to have quite a weight advantage over Mayweather tonight. Mayweather’s weight will likely not budge from the 149 that he came into the weigh-in at. If McGregor rehydrates o 170, he’ll have a 20 lb. weight advantage tonight. That’s nothing to sneeze about. It’s awfully tough for even the good fighters to beat opponents that are 20 lbs. heavier than them, especially when it’s in the smaller weight classes like welterweight.

”Weight doesn’t win fights,” said Mayweather at the weigh-in.

Mayweather was lighter than Oscar De La Hoya in their fight in 2007, but that was a long time ago and he still almost lost that fight. De La Hoya would have won had he stuck with his jab instead of trying to throw power punches in the second half of the fight.

Mayweather was 30-years-old at that time, and still in his prime. Mayweather is 40 now, and he’s a long ways away from his prime of his career. Mayweather hasn’t fought in 2 years, and hasn’t faced a good fighter that was healthy since 2014 in his rematch with Marcos Maidana. Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao and Andre Berto in 2015, but Pacquiao was injured, fighting with just one healthy arm. Berto wasn’t the same fighter he’d been five years earlier. Mayweather picked two guys that were on the downside of their careers in Manny and Berto.

McGregor is in his prime. He may not be a boxer, but he’s a very good UFC fight with striking skills that you can argue are as good as some of the top fighters in boxing. All you need to do to evaluate McGregor’s talent is to take a glance at the sparring clips of him and Paulie Malignaggi. McGregor bounced Malignaggi around the ring like a basketball. It was too easy.

The size advantage for McGregor was just too much in his favor. Even with Malignaggi having the better boxing skills, he couldn’t stand his ground with that force of nature coming at him full steam. McGregor is just too powerful and too big. Malignaggi is about the same size and strength of Mayweather. You can just imagine what McGregor will do to Mayweather tonight if he chooses to stand in front of him the way he did with Maidana and Saul Canelo Alvarez.

“That’s the worst shape I’ve seen him in. He looks out of shape,” said McGregor. “I make weight. It’s about sacrifices, dedication, it’s focus and I make it.”

Weight does matter in boxing, and matters a lot. I hate to hear Mayweather dismissing the weight advantage that McGregor is going to have over him tonight like it’s a laughing matter. It’s not. McGregor is going to have all that weight going for him, and with that weight will come power.

Mayweather has been fighting like an old man in his last few fights, fighting with his back against the ropes, needing support for his old legs. He can’t fight in the center of the ring anymore. Tonight, it’s likely to be worse than it was before for Mayweather, as he’s likely going to be stuck with his back against the ropes for the entire fight for as long as it lasts. That’s bad news for Mayweather and for his fans. You stay against the ropes against a fighter like McGregor. I’m big follower of McGregor’s fights in the UFC over the years.

I’ve noticed that whenever McGregor’s opponents have backed up against the side of the cage in the octagon, he obliterates them with short chopping shots thrown with major power. McGregor doesn’t need to put his entire body behind his short punches because he’s got powerful forearms like Gennady Golovkin. McGregor’s arms are like sledgehammers the way that he pounds his opponents with short punches to the head. They can’t take McGregor’s punches for any length of time before they drop down on the matt. McGregor then jumps on them and lands a few choice shots before the referee pulls him off of them before they really get hurt.

It’s not going to end well for Mayweather if he is too old to get off the ropes against McGregor, because he’s going to get torn apart by him if he stays there. Mayweather might be able to come off the ropes for a short period of time, but he’s not going to be able to do it for long. McGregor is going to be on top of him as soon as he moves back to the ropes. If Mayweather was a big puncher, he’d be able to get stand his ground and fight McGregor at center ring and possibly knock him out, but he’s not a big puncher. Mayweather doesn’t knock guys out. He used to be a knockout puncher at super featherweight many years ago, but he lost that power when he moved up to welterweight. The power didn’t follow Mayweather.

Mayweather wants to be as fast as possible. That’s why he chose to come in at 149 instead of 154, but it’s a calculated risk that is going to backfire on him. Mayweather needed as much size and power as possible to keep a guy like McGregor off of him, and he’s not going to be able to do that tonight with him weighing only 149 lbs. against McGregor at 170 lbs. That’s a 21 lb. weigh advantage for McGregor, and he might come in heavier than that.

Can you imagine what it’ll be like for Mayweather if McGregor coming into the fight at 175 lbs. tonight and has a 26 lb. weight advantage over Mayweather? I’d like to think Mayweather will be able to overcome that huge weight advantage for McGregor, but I don’t think he can. Weight DOES matter in boxing, as it does in all sports. The bigger and stronger athlete generally wins out against the smaller, weaker and older athlete.