By Jim Dower: At the final press conference on Wednesday, Conor McGregor looked into Floyd Mayweather Jr’s eyes during the face off with the 40-year-old star and he says he saw a “broken man” staring back at him.
The younger, bigger, stronger and more active McGregor will be fighting Mayweather this Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight, which the boxing world have deemed “The Event,” could end up breaking the pay-per-view and overall revenue records for a boxing fight, leaving both fighters very wealthy men after the numbers roll in.
“I just saw him broken if I’m being honest,” said McGregor to Sky Sports News in talking about what he saw in the eyes of Mayweather during their face off at the final press conference. ”They should have left me where I was. I was good on my game. They shouldn’t have brought this animal over here. They have made a grave error and all I can do is capitalize on that.”
If Mayweather does turn out to be a broken man in this fight, it’s going to be a sad ending for the talented star. He’s dominated his opposition for over 20 years, and that’s a long time to be winning in a sport like boxing. Coming off of a 2-year layoff, Mayweather might not be the same guy he was before he started his retirement. Mayweather did not look good in his last fight against Andre Berto.
The energy level for Mayweather in that fight was quite low. It was a good thing for Mayweather that he picked out Berto to fight instead of one of the quality welterweights in the division. A young fighter like Keith Thurman probably would have beaten Mayweather on that night if he’d been in there with him. Mayweather obviously realized that the faded Berto was someone that he could beat without exerting too much energy.
To be frank, Mayweather did not look confident during the face off or at any time during the press conference. He looked a little worn down, and not up to the task of competing with McGregor to try and out trash talk him in front of the boxing and MMA media. McGregor tends to dominate all of his press conferences in the UFC with his often tongue-tied opponents.
It was no different with McGregor dealing with Mayweather on Wednesday. McGregor was more confident looking and he had the better sound bites for the media. Known for repeating himself in his interviews, Mayweather was never going to outtalk a guy like McGregor, who comes up with new things to say each time he speaks. It was no contest.
The 29-year-old McGregor will be making his pro debut in boxing in fighting one of the best boxers in the last 20 years in the sport. Mayweather is a former 5-division world champion, who could have gotten a lot more out of his pro career if he’d chosen to stay busy, fight often, and not take so many breaks from boxing.
In the last 10 years alone, Mayweather has been out of the sport for 4 years with him sitting out of the ring from 2007 to 2009 and then 2015 to 2017. We cannot know how much Mayweather has left in the tank until he gets into the ring with McGregor. Mayweather’s sparring partners haven’t been leaking negative things about him in talking about the sparring sessions. There’s no way of knowing how well Mayweather will fight until he gets inside the ring and starts showing the fans around the world.
“It was nice to finish a little bit more business-like, a bit more professional,” said McGregor. ”All in all, everything has gone smoothly and it’s business at the end of the day and on Saturday night we are going to take care of business.”
There isn’t much more for the two fighters to say to one another that hasn’t already been said. McGregor feels that the switch to 8oz gloves will give him a big advantage in the fight to make his punches more hurtful. Mayweather says McGregor is not going to see the final bell. Mayweather’s goal is to knockout the Irish man to give the boxing and MMA fans a present. Moreover, Mayweather wants to make up for his last huge mega-fight against Manny Pacquiao that failed to live up to the huge billing due to the lack of energy from the 2 fighters.
Mayweather could have done a lot more to make it a thrilling fight, but he choose to do just the minimum to win rounds. Mayweather even let Pacquiao win rounds by him taking rounds off so he could rest. Mayweather fought like he was lazy and old. It was such a bad fight to watch on many levels. Mayweather said he would make it up to the fans in his fight after that against Andre Berto in September 2015. Instead of making it exciting for the fans, Mayweather fought an arguably even more boring fight by just clowning and toying with Berto for 12 rounds.
Mayweather failed to live up to the things he had said he would do in that fight. Now, Mayweather is saying he’s going to make it exciting for the boxing fans by knocking out McGregor. Should the fans believe him or guy by his last 2 fights to predict how his fight with McGregor will play out?
Mayweather might not have the energy or the ambition to force an aggressive fight against the UFC star. When fighters get old, they need to fight at a slower pace so they can rest, and I think Mayweather is one of those types of fighters. While he’s said he’s going to go on the attack against McGregor on Saturday night, it wouldn’t be surprising if Mayweather spends most of the mega-bout with his back against the ropes, looking to just block shots and throw short counters. That style of fighting takes the least amount of energy, which is why guys like Saul Canelo Alvarez use that style. It helps them conserve energy and avoid gassing out.
With a victory over McGregor, Mayweather will break the 62-year record of boxing great Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record that he set in 1955. There’s more than a little unhappiness from some fans in how Mayweather’s fight against an inexperienced fighter in McGregor being permitted to count in the record books. The Nevada State Athletic Commission sanctioned the Mayweather-McGregor fight. They didn’t make a big deal out of the fact that McGregor is making his pro debut against an unbeaten former 5 division world champion in Mayweather. It doesn’t make Mayweather look good that he’s going to be setting the 50-0 record against a fighter in his first professional boxing fight. Some say that the Mayweather-McGregor fight should be an exhibition fight rather than it count as a true professional fight. Of course, if Mayweather had done that, there would have been far fewer boxing and MMA fans willing to purchase the fight on PPV. You can argue strongly that this fight needed to be a true professional contest for business purposes so it could make lots of money. With the NSAC sanctioning it as a professional fight, it will bring in the money, but at the same time it makes a mockery of the sport of boxing in the eyes of many fans.