Does Conor McGregor really believe he can defeat Floyd Mayweather?


By Kyle Hay
For almost two decades, Floyd “Money” Mayweather has dominated the sport of boxing with an
unblemished record, highlighted by an astounding 49 wins, 26 of which came by way of
knockout. In September of 2015, after defeating Andre Berto by unanimous decision, Floyd
vowed to walk away from boxing for good. When asked in the post-fight interview with Jim Gray
of Showtime about a possible left hand injury sustained in the ninth round, Mayweather quickly
responded, “Well, it doesn’t really matter if I hurt my left and my right hand. My career is over …
It’s official.” Keep in mind, this was not Floyd’s first time announcing his retirement. Following
his victory over Ricky Hatton on December 8, 2007, he claimed he would retire to focus on
building his promotional company.
Yet somehow Floyd has once again pulled himself out of retirement, this time to fight Conor
McGregor, a loud-mouthed, Irish, mixed martial artist whose trash talking and on-camera antics
are about the only thing up to par with Floyd. Earlier this year, McGregor began hint at the idea
of a potential fight between he and Mayweather while at the same time trying to bait Floyd to
come out of retirement and fight him by launching insults aimed at Mayweather via social media
and TV talk shows. After Floyd finally agreed to fight McGregor, the trash talking from both
parties only intensified. McGregor even went as far as to say that he would not only knock Floyd
out, but in the fourth round.
Well, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves now. McGregor has only
been strictly training for boxing for a little over half a year. For him to expect to knockout the
greatest, most dominant pound for pound boxer of the past twenty years is more than an
overstatement. Not to mention that former world champions Jessie Vargas and Brandon Rios
both confirmed that McGregor had been knocked out by his sparring partner while training for
the big fight. With all of this at the forefront, you have to believe that any rational human being
would believe that Floyd would win in a landslide. As irrational as McGregor’s actions and
statements have been, I think that deep down, he knows he cannot win. Guys like Canelo
Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao, who have trained their whole lives to be to world champion
boxers, could barely get their hands on Floyd, let alone beat him. Well then, if Conor deep down
does not believe he can beat Floyd, why does he want to fight Floyd and why is he putting up
this “front” in an effort to make everyone believe that can?
Well, there are two great motives as to why Conor McGregor would want fight Floyd
Mayweather. First and foremost, McGregor’s highest pay-per- view buyrate came in his rematch
against Nate Diaz in which he regained his UFC light heavyweight title and scored a UFC record
buyrate of $1,650,000. Not bad, right? Now, when looking the pay-per- view fight that generated
the least revenue for Floyd, it came against Carlos Baldormir, generating $16,300,000. That
fight by itself, netted more money for Floyd than Conor’s whole UFC fighting career. The fight
that generated the most revenue for Floyd came against Manny Pacquiao, amassing an
unprecedented $400,000,000. Win, lose, or draw, the buyrate from the Mayweather-McGregor
fight would be enough to set Conor up to the point to where he could retire from fighting at the
age of 29 and not have to worry about money for the rest of his life. Secondly, McGregor loves
being in the spotlight, and is making the most of his opportunity in the months of preparation for
the fight. Every second he gets on television, he is making the most of it. Slandering Floyd
Mayweather has been his meal ticket. He wants to make sure that he is always the topic of
conversation no matter what.He is building a fanbase and a brand while doing it. This fight is
going to change McGregor’s life forever. All he has to do is make it out in one piece.

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