McGregor needs to improve for Mayweather fight

 

By Allan Fox: Conor McGregor will need to make MAJOR improvements in his boxing skills for him to have any chance of pulling an upset against the ultra-talented Floyd Mayweather Jr. next month in their fight on August 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

McGregor has tired a number of sparring partners to help him get ready for this fight, but he might not have enough time to make the improvements he needs for him to have a real chance of beating the 40-year-old Mayweather.

One of McGregor’s former sparing partners, Chris Van Heerden, says he needs to make improvements in the way he sticks his head out in front of his body when he fights. Van Heerden says McGregor, 28, cannot do that against Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs) for him to have a chance of beating him.

It’s going to be tough enough for McGregor to pull off a big upset victory in this fight, as he’s coming into it with no professional fights under his belt. McGregor will be making his pro debut with a record of 0-0 on August 26 against Mayweather. Normally, a top fighter in boxing couldn’t sell one of their fights to the public if they were fighting an opponent making a pro debut.

First off, the fans would have never heard of the opponent, and they wouldn’t buy a fight involving an unknown. McGregor has a huge advantage over most novices, because he’s a well-known UFC fighter. Despite the fact that UFC is MMA and a completely different sport, McGregor is perceived by a lot of casual fans as having a chance of beating Mayweather. That’s why the fight has become a reality because the casual boxing and MMA fans will purchase the fight in high numbers believing it will be a fair fight. It probably won’t unless McGregor makes enough improvements in his game to get the win.

”His counter left hand caught me once or twice, before I figured it out. That’s his best punch because he’s got good timing,” said Van Heerden to skysports.com. ”But he keeps his whole head in front of his body, and you can’t do that against Mayweather. I assume they will work on that.”

It’s going to be difficult for McGregor’s sparring partners to try and get him to stop sticking his head far out in front of his body when he fights. If you look at McGregor’s fights in the UFC, he’s always fought that way. He likes to stick his head out in front of him to lure his opponents to try hit him. When they do, McGregor nails them with a left hand. McGregor leaves his hands down by his sides when he has his head out in front of him. That’s going to make it very easy for Mayweather to hit him with jabs and straight right hands.

McGregor has never fought anyone with the kind of hand speed that Mayweather possesses. There’s nobody in the UFC that has that kind of speed in the weight classes that McGregor fights in. Certainly none of McGregor’s sparring partners from the boxing world possess Mayweather like hand speed. McGregor hired former 2 division world champion Paulie Malignaggi as a sparring partner.

Malignaggi does not have Mayweather hand speed. Malignaggi might be able to teach McGregor a few tricks to use on Mayweather, but that’s about it. About the best that Malignaggi can do for McGregor is to help fix his fighting stance if he chooses to listen to him. McGregor seems pretty head strong, and he might feel like he’s above learning new things from his sparring partners. I hope that’s not the case because he’s got his work cut out for him going up against Mayweather.

”He told me that he was an amateur boxer, and I could see that, because he knows what he’s doing,” said Van Heerden. ”I thought at that point: If McGregor focuses on only boxing for six months he will shock a lot of people. He needs to focus on moving his feet and throwing punches in combinations.”

Van Heerden doesn’t have 6 months to learn enough to shock a lot of people. McGregor has one month to go before he fights Mayweather. He’s getting a crash course in boxing. It’s the equivalent of a student staying up all night and cramming before a big test. I don’t think McGregor is going to know nearly enough for him to keep from getting sunk by Mayweather.

The best thing that McGregor has going for him is his punching power. He can hit hard. McGregor also doesn’t commit all the way to his shots by extending his body the way boxers do. This might help him avoid getting caught by Mayweather’s counter shots. The last thing McGregor needs is to throw a punch with his entire body behind it, and then getting countered by Mayweather with one of his blinding fast shots.

Mayweather is likely going to take it easy on McGregor through a good portion of their fight. It would look really bad if Mayweather jumps on McGregor immediately and knocks him out right away. The boxing and MMA fans will be furious if the fight ends right away, as they’ll realize that they wasted their money. You can argue that it’s waste of money anyway, but these fans don’t realize how different the two sports are. They obviously have seen how well McGregor has done in the UFC when standing and fighting, and they feel it shouldn’t be an issue for him to do the same thing in boxing against Mayweather.

They’re going to find out the hard way that the sports have about as much in common as golf and football. They’re completely different sports. Like I was saying, Mayweather is probably going to take it easy on McGregor for at least 6 rounds before he goes after him for a knockout. That’s McGregor’s chance for him to try and jump on Mayweather early by nailing him with one of his big left hands. Mayweather hasn’t fought a lot of southpaws during his career, so this could be an area that McGregor can take advantage of.