Mayweather McGregor Megafight Megathread

[Elsalvajeloco]

The last time Floyd honestly went after a KO was Robert Guerrero, but he quit going for it around round 11. He was landing damn near everything up until then. However, he never really hurt Guerrero (stunned a couple times but never hurt) and just stepped off the gas a bit because he knew Guerrero was going to go for a Hail Mary punch at the very end of the fight.

[A_K]

I think its more likely that he wouldnt knock him out due to some gentleman's agreement rather than any desire not to take chances. Mayweather is famed for defensive qualities against the murderors row of seasoned professional vets. Mcgregor isnt so much as a professional. Id LOVE to see conor knock him out, but having seen him win the 2nd belt in nyc its disappointing to see him reducing himself to this rodeo

[supremebve]

Mayweather isn't a huge hitter, but he's more than powerful enough to keep his opponent's honest.  Andre Berto talks about everything he hits you with is stiff, sharp, and accurate, and makes you think about defending because you can't take too many of those shots.  Nothing actually buckles your knees, but he isn't hitting you with pillows either.  In a lot of Mayweather fights, his opponents kind of stop throwing at him trying to avoid those counters.  He doesn't really knock anyone out, but he hits hard enough that no one is  going to try to walk through his punches to try to hit him either.  

McGregor is doomed, because his biggest strength as a striker is fighting at distance.  Elsavajeloco was talking about him making it a brawl and trying to fight in a phone booth, but not only would he have to learn how to fight in a completely different sport, he'd have to learn how to fight at a distance he's not comfortable at fighting.  I don't think he'll be able to do that.  McGregor is kind of like the poor man's Mayweather in that he likes to fight at a distance where he can see what his opponent is trying to do and counter, even though he's clearly more aggressive.  The Diaz fights show that his aggressiveness leaves him open to counters, and his gas tank seems to wane as he takes punishment.  I see McGregor missing a bunch of power shots, getting countered, and eventually gassing and getting put away.  I think Mayweather is going to try to finish him and I don't think McGregor is going to put up much of a fight at all.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Berto is one of those fighters who has a naturally low output anyway. He also got with Virgil Hunter, who is a defense first coach. Moreover, Berto is basically has always tried to fight like Mayweather but with more muscles. There has been countless times where Berto tried shoulder rolling and got absolutely dismantled. So if anyone is going to destroy Andre Berto and make him defensive, it's going to be Floyd Mayweather. Berto's success (especially around the time he came from the Olympics) was against lower level fighters who also didn't throw a lot of punches for a welterweight. People got caught up in talking about his handspeed as a prospect, but everyone has handspeed against someone throwing 30 punches a round.

[AxB]

Conor's gym, yesterday:

[NikoBaltimore]

I'm not familiar with boxing but this thread has been bringing me up to speed regarding the fight so thanks all for that.

I like Connor more than Floyd but know he's going to get destroyed in this.  I'm just hoping that it's at least competitive enough where Connor doesn't look like a complete joke.  But either way it's a win-win for him.  Barring some freak injury that ends his career Connor will not only make tons of money but will hopefully have a better grasp on his boxing game.  If he can apply that to his UFC fights he can be a better fighter for it.  But considering it's in August if he's to fight this year it has to be December, right?  If they're still doing it around New Years I'd have him fight then.  That should hopefully be enough time for him to setup a UFC fight and properly train for it.

Regarding that sparring video I wonder how many people will know it was from last year, and whether they know or not how many will even care.  Regardless of when that was it just adds fuel to the "Connor gets destroyed fire"  Leading up to it they'd have to show how he is now and if they present him in the right light might even fool some people into betting on him.

[Michael Sweetser]

I'm not sure who's more annoying, the fairweather UFC fans saying McGregor has a chance or the fairweather boxing fans saying Mayweather will smoke him.  Maybe the lighting scaffolding will fall and crush both parties.

[glfpunk]

I wonder how hard it will be if Connor does somehow clip Floyd and knock him down for Connor to not follow up like you do in an mma fight and continue to go after him as he's down/going down. Not that that scenario will happen, I just think there's a possibility that instinct could take over in that situation. 

Connor is bigger than Floyd and Floyd isn't known for his power so I'd imagine that it will look like a 12 round boxing clinic with Floyd completely dominating but not putting Connor away. I think Connor's best chance would be to continue to shit talk throughout the fight and hope to get Floyd out of his game and make a mistake. Floyd likely way too smart for that but he could feel some pressure to finish Connor and not allow him to last to a decision because that could be perceived as a win of sorts for Connor to be able to come into a boxing ring and go the distance with the "greatest boxer of all time." 

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, glfpunk said:

I wonder how hard it will be if Connor does somehow clip Floyd and knock him down for Connor to not follow up like you do in an mma fight and continue to go after him as he's down/going down. Not that that scenario will happen, I just think there's a possibility that instinct could take over in that situation. 

Well, if you have a good quality referee, then that won't be much of a problem. Also, it's not like people don't know the rules of boxing. There is nothing as complex in boxing like the whole one finger/hand/knee down rule in MMA. If you understand the ruleset in MMA or have a firm grasp of it, you damn well better know how boxing works. At the same time, it's not like McGregor specifically has the Maximo Blanco in Sengoku thing going on. If he knocks someone down, he usually assesses the damage already done. He doesn't jump all over people and just go crazy with hammerfists.

You also have to take into account that many boxers (who actually box for a living) land one or two good shots as the referee jumps in to intervene and/or wave a fight off. Yeah, a straight up and down knockdown is where guys typically shouldn't be throwing anything else. However, as a fighter goes to a knee, glove touches the canvas, or the fighter gets trapped/held up against the ropes/in the corner, that happens plenty enough where the referee isn't going to lose their shit because the fighter who caused said KD clearly isn't cognizant of the situation immediately.

[Elsalvajeloco]

8 hours ago, L_W_P said:

Reason #19 Mayweather shouldn't let this go the to judges: The result of Pac v Horn. If McGregor can somehow land a few decent shots and survive the onslaught then there is every chance a crazy card give him a split decision.

I think Mayweather will be too good defensively but if he gets a chance to tee off on Conor then he should take it and try to put this away.

 

I think the reason why Manny gets judged differently than Floyd is eight or nine years ago, Manny was throwing around 90-100 punches a round. Lampley and Merchant use to fawn over Manny being able to throw a 1000 punches in a fight. Now? Manny throwing 50 or 60 a round or somewhere about that is the norm. Under his uncle Roger, Floyd was typically more offensive. Under Floyd Sr, he is a bit more defensive. However, there is no really big dramatic difference in either iteration of Floyd even in his late 30s going to being 40. Floyd is his own head trainer during the actual fight. He isn't as nimble as junior lightweight or lightweight Floyd, but I cannot expect a man who has been fighting at welterweight/super welterweight 11 years to be as quick as he was at 28. He is still quicker than everyone in that weight range. The Manny that fought Horn last night (or Sunday afternoon in Australia) was clearly aged and gets tired faster is going to be critiqued differently than Floyd. If you put gloves on Manny, compared to how hard it was to do that in his prime, you had a "good" round against Manny Pacquiao. Emanuel Steward use to bring this up all the time on commentary. It's comparative rounds. You didn't get your ass beat as badly as the last 1 or 2 rounds and you had some actual, tangible offense. Therefore, it is conceivable that the judges might believe you won (or are winning) the rounds that look like that. Every round in that fight didn't look like that ninth round (IIRC the round where Horn was in trouble) just like rounds 11 and 12 where Manny had an empty tank wasn't representative of the whole fight. You had Manny with a couple cuts, tired, landing good shots but missing wildly on some all while getting roughed up at certain points. At the height of his powers, that never happened to Manny Pacquiao at all. Horn, being the hometown guy, was going to get the benefit of the doubt even when Manny was clearly outboxing him.

So judging wise, I don't expect Floyd to get jobbed on the cards as long as it looks like a Mayweather fight unless it's that one absurd card from the Canelo fight. However, anything is possible once you take out a lot of those elements that make it a Floyd Mayweather type fight. If Floyd is landing straight right after straight right, then it's a wrap. If it looks like a Maidana I type fight where Floyd has to mind some of his Ps and Qs, then the crowd might make it seem much closer than it actually is.

[Elsalvajeloco]

[S.K.o.S.]

Is that for real?  Do you have a link to a story?

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, S.K.o.S. said:

Is that for real?  Do you have a link to a story?

The flyer is what is being passed around, but that may be fan created. However, the BBC did confirm a presser at Wembley with no date set yet.

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

The Staples Center has confirmed a press conference taking place on Tuesday, July 11.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

 

[ChesterCopperpot]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Kyuubi]

Is it me but it seems that boxing promoters are doing their damnest to depromote this fight?

You have Bernard Hopkins calling it a spectacle instead of a fight and basically summing up what anybody who has been in the ring vs an expert knows: Conor has no chance.

Then, anyone with any know-how in boxing just dismisses the fight as ridiculous and overhyped. Like yeah, they will advertise the fight, but they don't seem particularly enthused by it.

MMA promoters on the other hand are at least taking shots at Mayweather and while I hate Dana White, he at least is trying to sell you on the idea that it could be a compelling match up.

[BurningBeard]

I'm a boxing fan through and through, and I've got no problem with the fight - the buzz is great and its got everyone talking. I love it.

What I do have a problem with is summed up in this tweet:

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

8 minutes ago, Kyuubi said:

Is it me but it seems that boxing promoters are doing their damnest to depromote this fight?

You have Bernard Hopkins calling it a spectacle instead of a fight and basically summing up what anybody who has been in the ring vs an expert knows: Conor has no chance.

Bernard Hopkins works for Golden Boy. This fight took a lot of luster off of Canelo vs. Golovkin, which was suppose to be the biggest boxing fight of the year and Golden Boy is going to be doing the lion's share of promotion. So yeah, BHop has to do the hard sell against it.

Kathy Duva was so vehemently against it that it was so sad because (one) the announcement came the same week as Ward vs. Kovalev II which had no buzz anyway and (two) the amount of bitterness was so transparent 

They spent so much time hating on PBC and Al Haymon (Golden Boy is still trying to pursue legal action against those parties IIRC) and how it was going to flop that a megafight like this makes it seem like they were wrong. These promoters keep saying how they are going to bring boxing back but they want to negotiate the terms of how to "bring it back".  They can't do anything to make this fight not big and all this just makes all these boxing people (including some of these media folks as well) come off as extremely bitter and decrepit. Nothing more.

[Elsalvajeloco]

15 minutes ago, CreativeControl said:

I'm a boxing fan through and through, and I've got no problem with the fight - the buzz is great and its got everyone talking. I love it.

What I do have a problem with is summed up in this tweet:

 

I was watching Unforgivable Blackness, which I highly recommend, on Saturday before UFC 213. Jack Johnson was fighting carnival folks and the like. So do these wins not count? McGregor is at least trained in forms of combat sports. A lot of high level boxers back then fought pro wrestlers and amateur wrestlers. Do these wins not count anymore? A lot of the sub bantamweight fighters were (and still are) fighting muay thai fighters with zero pro boxing fights and go on to win recognized world titles. Do those wins not count? Scully is just talking out his ass.

[Kyuubi]

35 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Bernard Hopkins works for Golden Boy. This fight took a lot of luster off of Canelo vs. Golovkin, which was suppose to be the biggest boxing fight of the year and Golden Boy is going to be doing the lion's share of promotion. So yeah, BHop has to do the hard sell against it.

Kathy Duva was so vehemently against it that it was so sad because (one) the announcement came the same week as Ward vs. Kovalev II which had no buzz anyway and (two) the amount of bitterness was so transparent 

They spent so much time hating on PBC and Al Haymon (Golden Boy is still trying to pursue legal action against those parties IIRC) and how it was going to flop that a megafight like this makes it seem like they were wrong. These promoters keep saying how they are going to bring boxing back but they want to negotiate the terms of how to "bring it back".  They can't do anything to make this fight not big and all this just makes all these boxing people (including some of these media folks as well) come off as extremely bitter and decrepit. Nothing more.

You know I do not like Conor and think he is a flash in a pan, but these boxing promoters confuse me because it is not like MMA did not invite boxing champions to face their own before.  I mean I respect the science of boxing after watching a bunch of kids training for the Olympics in my kickboxing gym. That shit is a different sport and I could not imagine going hand to hand with an amateur boxer let alone a professional. But they have to like the notoriety at least? The last thing boxing is known for was the Pac and Mayweather fight and that was a dud from a casual point of view. This could very well sell newcomers to boxing and some may perceive it as their preferred sport. I just do not understand how purists like Max Kellermen aren't jumping for joy for Conor McGregor.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Just now, Kyuubi said:

You know I do not like Conor and think he is a flash in a pan, but these boxing promoters confuse me because it is not like MMA did not invite boxing champions to face their own before.  I mean I respect the science of boxing after watching a bunch of kids training for the Olympics in my kickboxing gym. That shit is a different sport and I could not imagine going hand to hand with an amateur boxer let alone a professional. But they have to like the notoriety at least? The last thing boxing is known for was the Pac and Mayweather fight and that was a dud from a casual point of view. This could very well sell newcomers to boxing and some may perceive it as their preferred sport. I just do not understand how purists like Max Kellermen aren't jumping for joy for Conor McGregor.

If you remember around 05-07 when UFC took off, you had A LOT of boxing folks just get angry about the amount of coverage that UFC/MMA was getting. You had that infamous split screen argument shouting session with Rogan and Lou DiBella around UFC 78 (FWIW it seems like DiBella is ok with the idea of Floyd vs. Conor probably since PBC uses him as a promoter of record on several shows). Jim Lampley would get on every major HBO broadcast and try to bury MMA until I believe HBO made him stop doing that. It's just a lot of deep seeded resentment still left over from 10 or so years ago. That was back when UFC was on a clear ascent and boxing appeared it needed to be saved (which seems to be every 5-7 years over the last century). It also doesn't help that you had folks like Ronda and Conor more recently kinda bring MMA to a different crossover audience that boxing has never really attracted since the days of Mike Tyson and Oscar de la Hoya. I am not trying to make a big deal out of it because people want to pick a side no matter how stupid it is. If you can make 100 million for what amounts to an half hour or less, you didn't lose at all. Haymon, Showtime, Floyd, Conor, their camps, the PPV distributors, and WME/IMG are getting all the profits for this. They understand there is no real MMA vs. boxing thing, but if it helps to make it seem like that, the boxing people are unintentionally helping them out.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[supremebve]

2 hours ago, Kyuubi said:

I just do not understand how purists like Max Kellermen aren't jumping for joy for Conor McGregor.

This fight is absurd, but I'm not offended by it, but I fully understand why people on both sides hate it.  McGregor is a great MMA fighter, he beat Jose Aldo who is one of the 5 best MMA fighters ever, and smashed Eddie Alvarez, who is one of the top 5 fighters in the most talent rich division in the history of MMA.  You can hate him, but he's more than proved himself in MMA.  The problem is, he's not a boxer.  He's a professional fighter, and a damn good one, but MMA isn't boxing and boxing isn't MMA.  McGregor is not going to be competitive in this fight.  Mayweather has been fighting the best boxers in the world for the last 20 years, and most of those fights haven't been competitive.  Mayweather is an all-time great fighter, fighting a dude who has never boxed professionally and boxing purists hate that people are talking about this fight and not any of the fights between real life top contenders.  How can you not understand that?