Since Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor first started jawing with each other this writer had a feeling that this fight will be made. Criticism of the fight not-withstanding the financial windfall of said fight could possibly exceed the record breaking receipts of the 2014 Mayweather/Pacquiao fight!
When talking with fellow combat sports writers, I predict 6M-8M PPV buys, considering boxing and MMA fans combined. I also predict a very tough match for the 40 year old Mayweather facing an in his prime 28 year old McGregor.
Whether McGregor has elite boxing skills or not doesn’t matter, as an MMA fighter McGregor is primarily a stand-up fighter winning most of his fights via knockout. Another fact is that McGregor is physically bigger and stronger than Mayweather, and is used to taking punches from 4oz gloves of MMA fighting, in contrast to the 8oz or 10oz gloves of boxing. McGregor is a scrappy, rough and tumble fighter, has great cardio, and has craftiness and guile about himself.
Floyd Mayweather likes to clinch when opponents get in close, to tie them up preventing them from punching. MMA fighting is ALL about the clinch, how is Mayweather going to clinch with and tie up the bigger, stronger McGregor? McGregor can also throw clubbing blows like Marcos Maidana was able to do without worrying about Mayweather being able to counter and hurt him!
It would be to McGregor’s advantage to prevent this from being a boxing match, making it instead into a street fight, which is exactly what he will do.
Mayweather has chosen a very tough route to get to 50-0! In order for him to win he’s going to have to fight like he fought early in his career. Mayweather will not be allowed to rest by McGregor, so he’s going to have to throw a lot of punches. Floyd’s going to have to be much stronger physically, his punching power must increase, and his 40 year old stamina is going to have to be at an all time high! If Floyd thinks its going to be a pure boxing match and not a street fight he’s deluding himself. Floyd should’ve just chosen GGG as his opponent because McGregor is just as formidable!
Those fans and critics out there who think that this fight will be a miss-match are wrong!
Those fans and critics who criticize Mayweather for wanting to fight McGregor are wrong here too, it’s about time that an MMA fighter crossed over to boxing to test himself! James Toney crossed over to MMA a few years back and got his ass handed to him, and nobody criticized Randy Couture, or Toney for that matter.
In the end, the ‘if it makes money it makes sense’ cliche that we’re all used to hearing is the driving force for this event to be made. The UFC stands to get 50% of McGregor’s purse plus a percentage of the PPV buys, which could be $50M+. McGregor could see a $50M+ payday, much larger than the $3M paydays he’s been getting for his work in the cage. Mayweather could get another $200M paycheck for 36 minutes of work unless either man takes the outcome out of the judges hands. And the fans of both sports will dish out their hard earned cash to see which fighter and ultimately which combat sport has the superior fighter.
In any case both sports will benefit, but the sport of the winning fighter will benefit most!
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