By Allan Fox: Mike Tyson is highly complimentary of Conor McGregor for him lasting ten rounds in his pro debut in boxing against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017. The former heavyweight champion Tyson, is impressed with the UFC star McGregor (0-1), making it to the 10th round against Mayweather, who he feels is the best boxer in the last 100 years of the sport.
Will Mike Tyson be added to the undercard of the Mayweather vs. McGregor 2 fight? It makes sense for Tyson to be complimenting McGregor if he’s going to be put on the undercard against someone like Evander Holyfield.
Aside from that, there’s nothing to praise from McGregor’s performance against Mayweather. Conor gassed out after three rounds, and that was with Mayweather fighting at a ridiculously slow pace. It appeared that Mayweather was sparring McGregor.
Tysons’s praise of McGregor doesn’t match the fight that fans saw. They saw Mayweather looking like he was carrying McGregor, and not showing any effort. It looked like Mayweather was fighting at 10%, and still dominating the hopefully outclassed McGregor.
Did Mayweather CARRY McGregor?
Some fans believe that Mayweather was afraid to destroy McGregor in a quick knockout for fear of angering the many fans that had paid huge money to see the match at ringside at the T-Mobile Arena.
It was such a boring fight to watch due to Mayweather’s glacially slow pace, and McGregor’s primitive boxing skills.
Tyson’s compliments of McGregor would appear to be setting the table for a needless rematch between him and Mayweather. It’ll be interesting to see if the 53-year-old Tyson winds up on the undercard in the co-feature spot.
“Listen, he never really had a boxing match in his life, right?” said Mike Tyson on Conor McGregor. “He went ten rounds against the greatest fighter [Floyd Mayweather Jr.] for the last 100 years of boxing.
“You’re not listening to me. He went ten rounds, scored punches against the greatest fighter in the last 100 years,” continued Tyson in building up Mayweather.
Is Mayweather the best fighter in 100 years?
Tyson calling Mayweather the “greatest” fighter in the last century is a bit much and hard to stomach. If you saw Mayweather’s fights against Jose Luis Castillo, Oscar De La Hoya, and Marcos Maidana, you can argue that he wasn’t even the best fighter in his own era.
An over-the-hill Dela Hoya almost beat Mayweather in 2007, and all he did was jab. Castillo appeared to get the better of Mayweather in their first fight in April 2002 in what a lot of people saw as a robbery. Likewise, Marcos Maidana seemed to do enough to deserve a win over Mayweather in their first contest in May 2014.
You can argue that these fighters were BETTER than Mayweather:
- Oscar Dela Hoya
- Sugar Ray Robinson
- Muhammad Ali
- Roy Jones, Jr.
- Marvin Hagler
- Thomas Hearns
- Sugar Ray Leonard
- Julio Cesar Chavez
- Salvador Sanchez
- Gerald McClellan
- Lennox Lewis
- Joe Calzaghe
- Rocky Marciano
- Archie Moore
- Carl Froch
- Nigel Benn
At the very least, these fighters were far more exciting to watch than Mayweather, who fought a boring safety-first style. For fans that remember seeing Mayweather’s fights against Manny Pacquiao, Andre Berto, and McGregor, those were dull affairs. You can argue that boxing fans got more for their money in terms of entertainment with the fighters mentioned above.
Tyson impressed with McGregor
“Look what he [McGregor] had to fight against, and look what he did,” said Tyson. “Imagine someone that had never had a boxing match, and they boxed against me. If he went ten rounds, and I’m doing my thing, that’s a bad mother-f*****,” said Tyson.
It would mean more what McGregor did against Mayweather if we saw some effort from Floyd, but it just looked like he carried him. Had Mayweather blown McGregor out of the T-Mobile Arena that night, there would have been a swarm of angry fans, all complaining that they’d been ripped off.
By Mayweather coasting for ten rounds against McGregor, it left open the possibility of a rematch. There would be no chance of a rematch between the two if Mayweather smashed McGregor right away in knocking him out in the first round.
With McGregor looked like he was there for the taking in the opening round, but Mayweather fought at a SLOW pace, and jump on him the way other boxers would have. Had that been someone like Errol Spence Jr or Gennadiy Golovkin, they would have crushed McGregor right off the bat.
Some of the fighters from the past would have embarrassed McGregor. Can you imagine what Gerald McClellan would have done to Conor during his career? McGregor wouldn’t have lasted even 60 seconds against Gerald in this writer’s estimation.
McGregor THANKS Tyson for the compliment
“Thank you, Mike, and just know that for the inevitable rematch, with the knowledge I now hold of Floyd’s style, plus under the tutelage of my old school boxing coach, I will crack the puzzle, and I will beat Floyd,” said McGregor on his Twitter. “I promise my life on it. It is great to see you back, Iron Mike Red heart.”
Mayweather vs. McGregor 2 will be seen as a money-grab by them, and it’s the worst type of fight to sell to the fans during the pandemic.
A rematch between Mayweather and McGregor is NOT what the boxing public needs right now, given that a lot of people won’t have a lot of extra spending cash due to the pandemic. What fans need are fights that won’t hurt the sport and taint. McGregor hasn’t earned a rematch against Mayweather by fighting some active boxers.
You can argue that McGregor doesn’t deserve to fight a top 15 welterweight, let alone face Mayweather again. But if he does want to fight Mayweather again, McGregor should prove himself against a quality 147-pounder like Shawn Porter, Yordenis Ugas, or Vergil Ortiz Jr.
If McGregor can beat some of those guys, then you could say that he should get a second match against Mayweather. At this point, Mayweather would likely lose to all of those guys.
