Mayweather McGregor Megafight Megathread

[Sublime]

I want Sapp vs Tyson Dux

[Elsalvajeloco]

As for the undercard, I would expect something like Badou Jack vs. James DeGale II (might as well get some UK fans to travel since the Irish folks will be there) and maybe Floyd's protege Gervonta Davis defending his 130 pound title. 

[FluffSnackwell]

1 hour ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

There's got to be some sort of minor celebrity who dabbles in MMA and wouldn't be too good for Punk.  That'd probably garner some good media attention.  What's Jason David Frank, the ex-Mighty Morphin Power Rangers actor who got into MMA, doing now?

 

 

Punk, Power Ranger Frank and Buff Bagwell all competing to see who can bodyslam Steven Seagal? Also the whole point of Punk competing against a minor celebrity would be to see him get his clock cleaned again. Isn't Dave Mustaine an MMA enthusiast? I'm pretty sure Punk could take him.

[Elsalvajeloco]

If you wanna discuss CM Punk, there is the MMA Talk thread. 

[zev]

5 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

If you wanna discuss CM Punk, there is the MMA Talk thread. 

Can we use the MTV Shows thread too?

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

16 minutes ago, zev said:

Can we use the MTV Shows thread too?

 

This thread is not about CM Punk and a Power Ranger. It's about Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. If you want to discuss CM Punk, Jason David Frank, or anyone else unrelated to this event or fight, you can do that in the appropriate threads or PMs. 

[FluffSnackwell]

Has anybody brought up the unedited sparring footage Van Heerden released yet? I'm sure most of those who were going to order the fight are the types of diehards that made their minds up the minute the fight was announced, but for every other undecided straggler, maybe both camps should've compensated Van Heerden to keep this footage under wraps. Then again, I imagine a great deal of those stragglers will just ignore this footage and cling to their beliefs that McGregor could still land the miracle shot no matter how overmatched he is and end up buying the fight anyways. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, FluffSnackwell said:

Has anybody brought up the unedited sparring footage Van Heerden released yet? I'm sure most of those who were going to order the fight are the types of diehards that made their minds up the minute the fight was announced, but for every other undecided straggler, maybe both camps should've compensated Van Heerden to keep this footage under wraps. Then again, I imagine a great deal of those stragglers will just ignore this footage and cling to their beliefs that McGregor could still land the miracle shot no matter how overmatched he is and end up buying the fight anyways. 

If people knew or cared about Chris Van Heerden, it might have made a little difference.  As is, it is just a video.

I mean the footage came out last summer and still didn't really cut into the hype/buzz of the fight then.

I think most people made their minds up about this when they first started talking about this as something that could potentially happen. The only thing that would have screwed it up is if Conor lost the Diaz rematch or the lightweight title fight against Alvarez. The performance against Alvarez just added fuel to the fire. I doubt it would be stoked by Chris Van Heerden, who is barely known as a boxer inside of his own country and only known here for getting his ass kicked by Errol Spence, making Conor look bad.

[FluffSnackwell]

23 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

If people knew or cared about Chris Van Heerden, it might have made a little difference.  As is, it is just a video.

I mean the footage came out last summer and still didn't really cut into the hype/buzz of the fight then.

I think most people made their minds up about this when they first started talking about this as something that could potentially happen. The only thing that would have screwed it up is if Conor lost the Diaz rematch or the lightweight title fight against Alvarez. The performance against Alvarez just added fuel to the fire. I doubt it would be stoked by Chris Van Heerden, who is barely known as a boxer inside of his own country and only known here for getting his ass kicked by Errol Spence, making Conor look bad.

The show I caught it on made it seem as if the footage had been heavily edited by Conor's camp (when previously released) as to not make him look so amateurish. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

9 minutes ago, FluffSnackwell said:

The show I caught it on made it seem as if the footage had been heavily edited by Conor's camp (when previously released) as to not make him look so amateurish. 

The "edited" version from the McGregor camp came out last May. Van Heerden released the "unedited" version last July.

I have not seen what Heerden put out just recently, but I'm assuming it's a re-release because I don't think they are regular sparring partners. If they were, Van Heerden would lose his job because that's a big no no in combat sports. This just comes off as thirsty because his boxing career isn't worth discussing. Also, he is costing himself sparring partner opportunities (which is decent money for someone whose career isn't going great) by being adamant about releasing sparring footage.

[Kevin Wilson]

15 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

The "edited" version from the McGregor camp came out last May. Van Heerden released the "unedited" version last July.

I have not seen what Heerden put out just recently, but I'm assuming it's a re-release because I don't think they are regular sparring partners. If they were, Van Heerden would lose his job because that's a big no no in combat sports. This just comes off as thirsty because his boxing career isn't worth discussing. Also, he is costing himself sparring partner opportunities (which is decent money for someone whose career isn't going great) by being adamant about releasing sparring footage.

He actually admitted on an interview that he just did it for attention, so yea, he kinda looks extra shitty in all this.

Since it happened over a year ago, and was just a sparring session, it wouldn't change my mind on how Conor would do in the boxing match now. Its not incredibly relevant. Course I don't expect Conor to do well but old footage wouldn't impact it either way. I think its kinda crazy that the early betting was so heavily on Conor that it dramatically shifted the line.

[Setsuna]

Do you think Dana would have gone for this had the UFC not been sold? Elsal pointed out earlier that McGregor will not really have any reason to come back and fight ever again after this so you are pretty much giving up your biggest draw for a one-time profit. I have no idea what's in a UFC contract but I expect the old UFC guard to have frozen McGregor until he came around and took another UFC fight ala Couture - Fedor (apples to oranges in scale, but yeah)

Not surprised that the negotiations went smoothly once the plan was given the go-ahead. Pretty much no one has anything to lose - McGregor gets his massive payout and Money gets the low risk/high reward to go 50-0.

Thanks for putting the kibosh on the nonsense fantasy book the undercard - these next few months are going to be packed with enough ridiculous conjecture without bringing up ex-power rangers....

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

38 minutes ago, Setsuna said:

Do you think Dana would have gone for this had the UFC not been sold? Elsal pointed out earlier that McGregor will not really have any reason to come back and fight ever again after this so you are pretty much giving up your biggest draw for a one-time profit. I have no idea what's in a UFC contract but I expect the old UFC guard to have frozen McGregor until he came around and took another UFC fight ala Couture - Fedor (apples to oranges in scale, but yeah)

Not surprised that the negotiations went smoothly once the plan was given the go-ahead. Pretty much no one has anything to lose - McGregor gets his massive payout and Money gets the low risk/high reward to go 50-0.

Thanks for putting the kibosh on the nonsense fantasy book the undercard - these next few months are going to be packed with enough ridiculous conjecture without bringing up ex-power rangers....

 

From the sounds of it (or from at least what I can glean), for the UFC to agree to let Conor fight Floyd, Conor may have had to guarantee that he would return to the UFC for at least one or two fights as well as a decent portion of the revenue from the Mayweather fight.

I doubt Dana would be yukking it up with Leonard Ellerbe and giving props to the Mayweather camp if that wasn't the case. He also probably wouldn't be so adamant about Conor wanting at least one UFC fight before the year is up.

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

On 6/15/2017 at 10:30 AM, J.T. said:

Conor has legit knockout power so even in a spectacle like this, Money will have to at least respect that and plan accordingly.

I hate to say things like this because it sounds like hyperbole and that I'm making Mayweather out to be a God but I truly don't believe he has to respect Conor at all.  I can't fathom Mayweather getting hit by him. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

It should be noted that the last time Floyd took two years off, he had his best career performance IMO against Juan Manuel Marquez. However, he was also only 32 years old.

Personally, I think Floyd is going to try to prepare for Conor in the same way he probably prepared for Marcos Maidana both times. The rough and tumble brawlers type have given Floyd a little trouble. The first Jose Luis Castillo fight was very ugly, but to be fair to Floyd, that was kinda his first fight like that and his closest to a defeat besides the scare against Mosley. He looked better in the rematch and was able to keep JLC off of him. In the Cotto fight, he was beat up a little because Cotto was mugging him a bit. However, from a distance, Mayweather potshotted him at will. That was the difference in that fight. In the first Maidana fight, Maidana stiffened Floyd up a little with a punch (as Floyd was coming in with a punch of his own) at the end of the round. Floyd had plenty of success, but Maidana made that fight messy. He won the rematch by soundly outboxing Maidana and staying out of the way of his clubbing attacks.

Floyd's game relies so much on making adjustments and using every round to do so. So what Conor decides to do is vital to what Floyd plans to do. Conor isn't training BJJ, wrestling, or any type of grappling for two months. It's boxing for several weeks straight. Floyd's straight right is probably the best punch in boxing over the last twenty years or so because it's just pure muscle memory. It's hard to land that straight right in a phone booth type fight, but that's kinda where a skill disparity will show up. Someone like Brandon Rios has always thrived in a phone booth type fight that's a war of attrition. Whenever he fought someone who was capable of fighting him without engaging in that type of fight, he got utterly destroyed from bell to bell.

If Conor wants to have any type of success, he has to keep Floyd back to the ropes and keep him from spinning out. In the center of the ring, he stands no chance at all. The reason why he able to catch Aldo with that straight left is because Aldo came rushing forward with an attack that would have only at best only backed McGregor up. You rarely get that in boxing unless dudes are in desperation mode. You may get in once in a notable fight like the fourth Pac-JMM fight but Marquez was going to the left and Manny was right in front of Marquez's right arm with his own right arm below Marquez's chest. That was an invitation to get knocked out.

Floyd knows he has most of the advantages, but at the same time, he is expecting a dirty type of fight. It also doesn't help that his pops has a weird premonition about MMA so that's only going to serve to amplify that particular idea. Floyd's experience with those elements (the elbows, the rabbit punches, punches on the break, etc.) does indeed help him. However, it will be intriguing to see how Floyd responds to that age 40 if McGregor can get it there.

[Spritenaut 32]

What happens to Mayweather's legacy if he somehow loses to McGregor and ruins his perfect record?

I don't think that's likely to happen.  It may be next to impossible.  McGregor not landing a single punch may be more likely than McGregor hurting Mayweather enough to win.  Still, it's an interesting speculation.

 

[Setsuna]

He makes another 150 mil. in the rematch?

[Elsalvajeloco]

5 hours ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

What happens to Mayweather's legacy if he somehow loses to McGregor and ruins his perfect record?

I don't think that's likely to happen.  It may be next to impossible.  McGregor not landing a single punch may be more likely than McGregor hurting Mayweather enough to win.  Still, it's an interesting speculation.

 

Nothing should happen if people know what his legacy is. I think he adores the undefeated record (rumor is he trademarked 50-0), but at this point, he is clearly bigger than the undefeated record.

He spent the majority of his post De La Hoya career defending his victories, choice of opponents, and when he fought said opponents that being undefeated was an after thought. Marquez was a junior lightweight/lightweight. Mosley was too old and took too much time off after beating Margarito. Victor Ortiz lost to Marco Maidana and quits a lot. You haven't fought Miguel Cotto yet. You're ducking Manny Pacquiao and the steroid thing is just camouflage for that. etc. etc. Then after all that's done, you can't retire because people want you to fight Canelo, Gennady Golovkin, and whomever they dig up that they feel can beat you. However, if every boxer had to fight every up-and-coming fighter who builds a name for himself, they would never retire until they got beat the fuck up and the sport retired them just like a bunch of fighters through the decades. To take something away from Ice Cube's "True to the Game", they don't care...they'll have someone new next year.

Much of Floyd's legacy is being able to dictate the terms of his career. He had some notable fights under Bob Arum, but he wasn't going anywhere under Top Rank. He could barely fill up 1/3 of an arena. He bought out his contract with Arum for basically nothing, and as not amicable as it was to say the least, he was able to leave James Prince. Floyd hooking up with Al Haymon was the best career decision any athlete has made, and it pains everyone to say that. He went from a non draw with just P4P accolades on his side to the most lucrative athlete (especially for the amount of times he competes in a given year) we've seen especially in combat sports. He has been able to do that taking fights he wanted to take. He realized maybe seven or eight years ago that the belts meant something but if outside people dictate who has them and can fight for them, they're just nothing more than trinkets that get passed around a lot. I'll never forget when he was on 24/7 and said all belts do is collect dust. That's pretty much it. I remember when he didn't care if one of the WBA belts was on the line, and the WBA was pissed. Then, the next fight or the one after that, the sanctioning orgs were trying to add every made up and real life belt they could add just because they want to be associated with Floyd. Floyd Mayweather brings the value. Not the belts or the rankings or the P4P lists.

And a good portion of that happens to have seeped into MMA. Conor is his own beast, but you can tell Floyd has influenced a lot of his choices. Last April and just shortly prior to that (the single man press conference after beating Aldo for one) was something out of the Floyd Mayweather playbook. From Conor, many of the fighters are repeating the same ideas that Floyd trotted out just years before Conor did. The idea that belts aren't the be-all, end-all. The idea that they want fights that allow them to make the most money and not necessarily the next top contender. The idea that they fight when they want to, against who they want, and whatever division they want to fight in. People always thought this, but they were never outwardly saying this and in the same open manner before the Money Mayweather era. It just wasn't the sale. People jump on concepts that have been proven to work. What folks and pundits were saying was Floyd being selfish years ago has manifested itself into an entire culture in mainstream combat sports. That is Floyd Mayweather's legacy.

[zendragon]

I think Connor makes an interesting opponent , bigger, younger, hell of an athlete, good power. He has to make it a rough and tumble brawl in a phone booth though

[Niners Fan in CT]

I could have sworn I saw a story somewhere that stated Conor is likely done with UFC after this fight but I don't remember if it was ESPN reporting that or some other outlet. Regardless, I'm not sure I see how this fight would be good for UFC longterm if McGregor, their biggest money maker is just calling the quits.  

Wouldn't they have made a lot more money off him over the next 5 years than with a single fight? I don't know, I'm not aware of all the financials, It's just odd to me how he might be done and Ronda is likely done after being thrown in right away with Nunes. Doesn't UFC need to protect their stars more? 

[Elsalvajeloco]

14 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I could have sworn I saw a story somewhere that stated Conor is likely done with UFC after this fight but I don't remember if it was ESPN reporting that or some other outlet. Regardless, I'm not sure I see how this fight would be good for UFC longterm if McGregor, their biggest money maker is just calling the quits.  

Wouldn't they have made a lot more money off him over the next 5 years than with a single fight? I don't know, I'm not aware of all the financials, It's just odd to me how he might be done and Ronda is likely done after being thrown in right away with Nunes. Doesn't UFC need to protect their stars more? 

Yeah, I don't think that was ever a story. That was probably someone just assuming based on what he is making on this fight. Many people are making that assumption. The thing is....my reasoning in the replies above is that Dana's deposition over the past month isn't that of a promoter who is losing his biggest asset. It's very much the opposite. When he met with Conor that one Sunday not too long ago, I'm safely assuming it wasn't just about money. The UFC had their own terms and conditions McGregor had to agree to before they let him take the Mayweather fight.

Someone in this thread brought up that old regime would freeze Conor out, but I think this fight may have soothed their relationship with Conor a little. Sabotaging this fight from happening would have made it tough for McGregor and the UFC to ever be on the same page for a long time. By that, I mean it's easy to see if someone doesn't want this fight to happen. Conor had a ton of leverage especially when Floyd wanted this fight too. However, UFC's leverage was the contract because Conor has several fights still left on it. Getting a piece of the action for this fight and making Conor agree to honor fights left on his deal is a lot more positive for the UFC than Conor takes a year or two off in protest for the UFC not letting him take this fight in addition to all possible litigation. They would win in court most likely but Conor means too much to them right now for a rocky divorce between the two parties. Getting that money is more short term than this situation will likely progress into.

Protecting someone is relative. Conor and Ronda Rousey are two separate people in and more importantly, out of the cage. I think Ronda pissed off other fighters because she was so willing to do stuff for the UFC with little to no hesitation. Then, when the UFC reciprocated by allowing her to not do media besides a few obligations for one fight, it became that much more of a problem. Fighters who aren't star probably need to understand that they don't decide what qualifies between right and wrong and the means people who have power can wield that power. Demetrious Johnson has the right to snap on Ronda Rousey, but it doesn't mean that he is qualified to say what Ronda Rousey should do.  The relationship between the UFC and its stars is always going to be unique and under wraps no matter what regime it is. We're not privy to much of the details besides what slips out here and there. However, it doesn't take much to put two and two together. In the case of Conor, it's evident he loves fighting and the fact that he can make a ton of money from fighting. He also isn't scared of new challenges and whatever comes from that. The UFC has to deal with that and work out how they can continue to maintain a healthy relationship with him. Conor knows how to use his power, but he isn't the guy to blow up everything just for the sake of doing it. He keeps the money on the table.

[AxB]

50-0 is bullshit. Julio Cesar Chavez was 87-0 before he 'drew' with Pernell Whittaker.

[Elsalvajeloco]

8 minutes ago, AxB said:

50-0 is bullshit. Julio Cesar Chavez was 87-0 before he 'drew' with Pernell Whittaker.

But he ended losing multiple times after that. 

Anyway, records only matter depending on how much weight you put on them. Cesar Rene Cuenca was 48-0 and was always like a win ahead of Floyd but no one gave a shit because it's some Argentine fighter with one KO on his record.

[A_K]

Fully expect Conor to be knocked out. Those saying Floyd lacks knockout power are missing the point. If he wants to hit Mcgregor he'l hit him; whenever, how often and as hard as he likes. Akin to suggesting an aging MLB slugger whose power is declining at elite level couldnt hit home runs off bush league pitchers. If Mayweather chooses to stop him therell be zero Mcgregor can do about it.

[Kevin Wilson]

35 minutes ago, A_K said:

Fully expect Conor to be knocked out. Those saying Floyd lacks knockout power are missing the point. If he wants to hit Mcgregor he'l hit him; whenever, how often and as hard as he likes. Akin to suggesting an aging MLB slugger whose power is declining at elite level couldnt hit home runs off bush league pitchers. If Mayweather chooses to stop him therell be zero Mcgregor can do about it.

He certainly has the ability, the bigger question to me is how hard will he try. I expect Mayweather to take zero chances, his skill is amazing defense and counter punching, I don't think he is going to risk getting hit with a lucky punch just to try for a big KO shot. That just hasn't been his style. I'm not a boxing expert and have only seen maybe six or seven of Mayweather's fights, but I can't remember him doing a ton of power combinations with the intent of getting a KO (not counting the Ortiz situation of course). I certainly think Mayweather has the ability to knock out Conor, and its very likely he will eventually do so once Conor gets winded by the 3rd Round, but I don't think he is going to take any chances.