Mayweather Vs Mcgregor .... Fight of the Year or Farce of the Century?
Last night, following months of rumours and weeks of negotiations the much talked about Boxing match between Floyd "Money" Mayweather and UFC Champion "Notorious" Conor Mcgregor , which will likely earn both around $100 million, was finally agreed upon.
Mayweather will come out of retirement to fight the Lightweight UFC Champion and put his unbeaten 49-0 record on the line. To say this cross over bout between the worlds two most popular combat sports has caused a mixed reaction, is an understatement, with fans from both sides labelling it a "farce" or a "circus". Legendary boxer turned promoter Oscar De La Hoya is quoted as saying that the sport of boxing may never recover from this. Being a great fan of Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing, I feel much of this criticism of the fight is unjustified. Ive been wanting to Blog about MMA for a while so decided to take it upon myself to address some of the criticisms of the match-up.
In comparison to Boxing MMA is fairly new on the scene as a worldwide sport and so hasn't yet gained the respect it deserves from professional boxers, this bout may well be an opportunity for that to happen. The ignorance of MMA shows up in the quotes from some of the boxers who are against the fight. I heard former world champion boxer Carl Froch giving a radio interview in which he claimed the fight would be more competitive if it took place inside the octagon under UFC rules. This statement was bordering on the bizarre as MMA has many disciplines that the 40 year old Mayweather would need to master in a short space of time, defending takedowns, wrestling, learning to kick and learning ju jitsu to name but a few whereas Mcgregor is already a very accomplished stand up fighter (albeit not in Boxing). Its ludicrous to think Floyd would last more than a minute in an MMA fight and shows the ignorance of many boxers towards the sport. This isn't just my opinion, this has happened many times with former 3 division world boxing champion James 'Lights out" Toney being the most memorable, easily dispatched in MMA by a then 47 year Randy Couture in the 1st round. Toney spent just 18 seconds on his feet before Couture took him down like a rag doll and toyed with him before submitting him. No joke over a man who beat Mike Tyson!
De La Hoyas claims of this bout bringing the noble art of Boxing down to a place it may never recover from is equally bizarre. Maybe he never watched Mike Tyson bite a chunk from Evander Holyfield's ear, or an aged Muhammad Ali bizzarely fight an unknown Japanese wrestler in what was promoted as the "Fight of the Century". He certainly must of missed all of Eric"Butterbean" Esch's fights!
The bizarre bout between Ali and wrestler Inoki in which Ali threw 16 punches in 12 rounds didnt ruin boxing so why would two fighters at the top of their game?
Butterbean 😂
Watching the two most high profile warriors from the two most popular combat sports in the world go head to head is admirable in comparison.
Finally the main criticism of this bout is that Mcgregor at 0-0 in his boxing career is a completely mis-matched opponent for possibly the greatest boxer of the modern era. Mcgregor is a huge underdog. Its a very valid point of course but I'm gonna to leave you with some equally valid reasons why "The Notorious One" might just have an outside chance .....
1 ... Mcgregor hits like a truck, he has pure knockout power especially in his left hand.
2 ... He's in his prime age wise at 29 , Floyd is 40
3 ... Floyd has been known to struggle with southpaw fighters
4 ... Floyd has never been known for knockout power and Mcgregor is used to taking kicks and knees and punches with tiny 4 ounce gloves.
5 ... Conor is much bigger physically for the weight class than Mayweather
6 ... His style will be unlike anything Floyd has ever faced before
7 ... Floyd has been very inactive for 2 years, Conor has fought 5 times since Floyd last fought.
8 ... A win for Mcgregor is to just make it the distance with one of the greatest boxers of all time in his own sport, this will put a lot pressure on Floyd to knock him out.
Whatever happens I for one will be watching , especially the build up and verbal sparring where Mcgregors wit is even quicker than his hands. I hope that both fighters put on a great show and make the critics eat their words!
"who the fook is that guy" 🤣😂🤣
There is certainly a disproportionate amount of outrage being passionately expressed in social media since the fight was announced as official. Perhaps because I am not a die hard fan of either boxing or MMA (and therefore I don't take either super seriously) but I am actually very interested on witnessing the outcome of such an experimental bout (where, as you mentioned, the fighters involved are top notch), a cross-discipline fight of sorts. Your breakdown of the reasons why McGregor might have a shot is very interesting, however I still think that he is at a big disadvantage.
It is also amusing to see all the MMA fighters trying to piggy-ride on this calling out boxers now... could this become a new trend?
Thanks for your comments :) I see the outrage too and I have a suspicion that all the anger stems from fear (as Yoda would say) ....... When James "Buster" Douglas was matched against Mike Tyson he was 42-1 to beat Iron Mike, The greatest to ever lace up gloves Muhammad Ali was around 10-1 to beat George Foreman in the rumble in the jungle and was 7-1 to beat Sonny Liston the night he first became champ .... Mcgregor is only 6-1 meaning he has a chance in the eyes of bookmakers ,more of a chance than Buster did by a factor of 7. The real damage to Boxing isn't the fight itself its if he was to knockout Floyd in devastating fashion, it would propel MMA above boxing in credibility and kids worldwide would want to train MMA instead, threatening the very future of Boxing. I agree with you that its unlikely but it certainly seems to be worrying some of boxings biggest names!