Mayweather Has Pulled Off His ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ Fight and Sold it for a Billion Dollars

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By Rob Blakeman: Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather will be breaking the great Rocky Marciano’s record of 49 and 0 when he beats Connor McGregor this weekend and it’s going to be witnessed by over one billion people. He will also become the World’s first billionaire sports man when he does so. And yet the greatest boxer of his generation and probably the greatest defensive fighter of all time will be fighting a guy whose professional boxing record is 0-0-0.

Virtually every guy who Floyd has beat would themselves beat McGregor. In fact, when I first heard that the fight had been confirmed I assumed that Floyd would be conceding some kind of handicap like a 20-pound weight deficit or even having one arm tied behind his back but no. Floyd hand his people have talked this one up enough to more than just create some doubt in many people’s minds about the outcome. He has done this by the clever use of a number of uncertain methods. The first is his inactivity for two years.This of course, is not completely true. While he has not boxed in a prize ring he has still been training, sparring, eating correctly and living well-hardly inactive. The other reason people think Floyd may lose is due to his age (40-not old at all for an athlete of Mayweather’s caliber) compared to McGregor’s 29. The final and best cherry picking of all was getting a guy even more obnoxious and insufferable than himself in the other corner. Mayweather has always been the ‘Black hat’ in his previous fights but not this time. McGregor has an even bigger mouth and at least as much self-belief as Floyd. That’s how Floyd has been able to camouflage the fact that McGregor is from a completely different discipline from boxing. It’s not just ‘fighter versus fighter’-it’s boxer versus fighter and that’s always a bad bet for those backing the fighter.

Remember what Floyd did to accomplished box/fighter Arturo Gatti in 2005? Gatti had changed his style from mere slugger with the help of his trainer Buddy McGirt and he now quite adept at boxing at distance as well as mixing it up when required. It had lengthened his career and he was the naturally bigger man in this fight made at super lightweight for Gatti’s World title. It made no difference. The fight was stopped after 6 rounds with Gatti having landed only 41 punches to Mayweather’s 168. Just consider that; one fighter able to land four times as many punches on another World Champion. It was a massacre. It showed the World how good Mayweather was and it was so one sided it was unbelievable that Gatti was the World Champion defending his title. Mayweather could land blistering lightning fast combinations at will in what I feel was his greatest performance. The big difference then was Mayweather insulted Gatti before the fight, calling him a C plus club fighter. This time Floyd has talked the threat from McGregor up in to a credible one in the eyes of many. “Just look at what a savage threat this man is!” Let me tell you now; The Emperor is not wearing any clothes and when the smoke settles I see this fight ending in the same manner as the one with Gatti. McGregor is tough and so he will not just quit and go down without a struggle but he’ll soon realize he’s way out of his depth. When the end does come I predict that he will not know where the punches are coming from but he’ll know where they’re landing. Floyd will be too fast, too talented and just too much for Mac. For those who think not, how dare you doubt Mayweather’s greatness? McGregor is not only unproven as a boxer but is a virtual novice. Floyd is proven 49 times as undefeated multi-weight Champion.

All hypothetical concessions aside it’s a carthorse against a thoroughbred so the only real question about this fight at all is just how long will the referee (Thankfully, the experienced Robert Byrd) allow Floyd beat up on poor old McGregor? He won’t want to endanger his life but he must allow Floyd to satiate the blood-lust of the audience. How much can one man take to give the fans satisfaction for their money? It’s hard to say but like the great Juan Manuel Marquez once said; “All the money in the World can’t buy you a new brain”