The Biggest Event In Boxing History? Floyd Mayweather VS Conor McGregor

  On Saturday, August 26, Floyd Mayweather will put his historic 49-0 record on the line against UFC Champion Conor McGregor. Mayweather, who is widely considered one of the greatest fighters of all time, retired on November 12, 2015 after defeating Andre Berto to defend his welterweight titles. On the other hand, McGregor has taken the sporting world by storm after punching his way through the UFC featherweight division en route to his first title. As a UFC fighter, McGregor is an elite striker with unmatched knockout power, as he has won 7 of his 10 UFC fights via knockout. He also became the first fighter in UFC history to hold two titles simultaneously when he knocked out Lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez back on November 12, 2016. This guy is a true knockout artist and has the power to knockout any fighter on earth with just one punch. However, this fight will not take place in the octagon, so McGregor will not be able to grapple, kick, or throw any elbows, giving Mayweather a ridiculous advantage. To be honest, Mayweather should win this fight easily by simply displaying the elite defensive abilities that have allowed him to remain unbeaten through 20 years of fighting the boxing’s best. He has been criticized for his perceived passive fighting styler, but in reality he is an artisan of defensive fighting.  So if we see the same Mayweather from 2015, he should be able to easily thwart McGregor’s power punches.  

    What makes this fight interesting though is the fact that Mayweather has not fought in nearly two years, so who knows what he will look like once he steps in the ring against a guy like McGregor who has knocked out champions in as quickly as 13 seconds. After all, Mayweather is 40 years old now and has admitted, “I can’t do it anymore…I’m not the same fighter I was two years ago.” If a 40 year old Mayweather truly is not the same fighter he was two years ago, stepping in the ring with a 29 year old knockout specialist could make for a crazy night.  There are also rumors he is only fighting for the money, facing a considerable IRS debt.   Either way, I could easily see this fight panning out in one of four different ways. The first would be what most boxing and fighting experts anticipate. Floyd Mayweather comes out displaying much of the same speed and anticipation that has allowed him to dominate fights in the past and easily outduels McGregor in a 12 round defensive bout, taking the fight by unanimous decision. Another likely scenario would be, Conor McGregor comes out looking like a legitimate boxer and surprises Floyd in the early rounds by landing some heavy punches, forcing him to back off and win a defensive fight ending with a tighter decision. What could also happen is, Conor McGregor comes out displaying an unorthodox and very aggressive style, actually causing trouble for the 40 year old Mayweather and leading to a very close and entertaining fight that could go either way. The final scenario I could envision for this fight would be Conor McGregor comes out throwing everything he has got at Floyd, forcing him to evade punches at an incredible rate that the 40 year old can just not sustain at his current age, resulting in a shocking KO victory for McGregor. Those are the most likely outcomes to this multimillion dollar superfight. However, I get the feeling this fight will exceed most people’s expectations and end with an incredible outcome. One we rarely see from Mayweather. I believe Floyd “Money” Mayweather will knockout Conor McGregor in a wildly entertaining bout. Why do i believe a knockout is coming? Well because Conor McGregor is an incredibly aggressive fighter who comes out in every fight looking to end it with his first punch. I see Conor employing the same strategy in this boxing match because he really has no chance of simply out-boxing one the greatest fighters of all time and I think he knows that. That being said, I believe Floyd’s defense will be far too much for the UFC fighter to handle inside the ring and result in a ton of big misses by Conor McGregor. It will be the tremendous defense of Mayweather that will lead to powerful counter punch, knocking out McGregor and ending this fight in a pretty unexpected manner. MAYWEATHER BY KO! BOOK IT!

Written by Ryan Scimone, Will McGuinness