The worlds of MMA and boxing have both been lit up at the prospect of the upcoming fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, as it features two fighters of genuine distinction in their respective sports. There has been an awful lot of talk about the fight, with much of it coming from the two fighters themselves, who have indulged in some seriously entertaining trash talking on social media sites over the past few months, but it will soon be time for the talking to end and the fighting to get underway. With just a month left until the fight takes place, can Conor McGregor spring one of the biggest upsets in boxing history?
Given the degree of excitement that there is about this fight it can be easy to forget how much of an underdog McGregor is going into it. Very few boxing fans or pundits give him any chance of winning, given that he is coming up against a vastly experienced boxer who has a professional record of 49 wins from 49 matches. Of course, McGregor’s record in the MMA is pretty good too as he has claimed 21 wins – 18 of them knockouts. Thus he clearly has talent, with his style based on hard counterpunches, and he also has a definite age advantage over Mayweather. Irishman McGregor is 28, making him more than a decade younger than 40-year-old Mayweather – who has emerged from a two-year retirement for this fight. McGregor’s approach is likely to be relying on taking his fancied opponent by surprise with this tactic and exploiting any early rustiness that Mayweather displays, but it is hard to see this being quite enough for him to emerge as the winner.
The fact of the matter is that, despite the aggressiveness of his counterattacks, McGregor has never faced a professional opponent in the boxing ring before and he is coming up against a highly skilled tactical pro. Were they fighting MMA, with its looser, more grapple-based style, he would have the edge, but he is taking on Mayweather on the latter’s territory. Mayweather will not want to see his unbeaten professional record taken from him by a man who has never boxed at anything other than amateur level before, and thus will go into the fight focused, in good shape and will simply have too much tactical nous for McGregor. This is a viewpoint that the bookmakers are in agreement with, as they believe that Mayweather will have a straight-forward victory against McGregor, he is the 1/7 odds-on favourite to win this, with McGregor on 5/1 to shock everyone. We will have to wait and see, but trying to beat the pokies is something which isn’t as straight forward. To be successful you need the tactical nous of Mayweather and the bravery of McGregor. Should you combine the two superstars’ outstanding traits you will have a fantastic chance of gaining a profit.
This fight in an enticing prospect, and if McGregor does defy the odds he will secure a place in sporting history.