It’s all becoming more realistic.
Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather is still quite some way away from the men making the walk to the ring but it’s definitely moving in the right direction.
Trash talk has intensified, offers have been made and McGregor has a shiny new boxing licence.
It could definitely happen!
It might be one-sided. It might not be. But one area in which there is little doubt is the fact that McGregor vs. Mayweather would make more money than any combat sports event in history.
Not buying suggestions that Mayweather is the bigger draw https://t.co/1nM8busF5H
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 14, 2017
The next time we see ‘The Notorious’ in action could well be in the ring, rather than the Octagon, as a boxing debut opposite arguably the greatest of all time would undoubtedly be the most lucrative bout on offer, far eclipsing the profitability of a title unification fight against the winner of the upcoming interim UFC lightweight title tilt between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.
Preparation for a clash with Mayweather would understandably require a significant change to McGregor’s battle-tested training methods which he has been using for years in anticipation of mixed martial arts contests, which feature many more possibilities and positional variations than boxing matches.
McGregor’s trusty head coach, John Kavanagh, has been speaking about the potential super-fight and has explained how the training process would work.
“To be honest, Ireland has a great boxing tradition and we have a great relationship with some of the pro boxing gyms in Ireland,” Kavanagh told The Daily Star.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMvZ2S6gcxy/?taken-by=coach_kavanagh
“Steve Conlan is a friend of the gym, he’s in and out of the gym. And his brother, Pascal Conlan, runs a gym close by that Conor sometimes goes to spar in.
“So in a weird way, you’re getting prepared to fight one of the best boxers there’s ever been.
“But in another way, it would actually almost feel like a break for us because we wouldn’t have to keep up the other skill sets.
“In mixed martial arts you’re trying to work on seven or eight different skill sets. Whereas in boxing, it’s one…it’s just boxing.
“It’d almost be like a break to only have to work on one and not work on everything.”
The vast majority of McGregor’s current striking training takes place with coach Owen Roddy, who you will have seen holding pads for ‘The Notorious’ in all of his pre-fight open workouts.
Roddy has also had his say on how McGregor matches up with the impregnable Mayweather, who retired in 2015 with a perfect professional record of 49-0.
“It’s kind of like a trade off between their two skill sets,” Roddy recently told Newstalk’s Peter Carroll. “We know that Conor can knock anyone stiff, but will he be able to land a solid connection on Mayweather, a guy who is probably the greatest defensive fighter of all time?
“Everybody has found that very difficult, but Conor poses a very different threat. Any time Mayweather has taken a serious shot, it’s always been against a southpaw.
“Conor is obviously a southpaw and he will be coming in and attempting to hit Mayweather from angles he probably hasn’t seen before because they come from different disciplines. Conor will be a lot bigger too.
“This is going to be a tricky fight for Mayweather because it won’t be like anything he has seen before in a traditional boxing match. Conor moves in such a unique way, it would be nearly impossible for Mayweather to get someone to replicate his style, especially because none of us have ever seen Conor contest a professional boxing match before.”
