McGregor: I will KO Mayweather within 4 rounds

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: Conor McGregor has decided that his best chances of beating Floyd Mayweather Jr. is to go after him early, and look to scalp him right away on August 26 in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

McGregor, 28, is already predicting an early knockout by the 4th round against the 40-year-old Mayweather in their scheduled 12 round boxing match. It’s easy to understand why. McGregor has been fighting 5 round fights in the UFC. Making the transition from fighting 5 round matches to fighting a full 12 round fight won’t be an easy one for McGregor, especially with him not getting a number of fights to slowly increase his endurance.

With boxers, they start their careers out fighting in 4 to 6 round fights. They then go to 8 and eventually 10 and 12 round fights. With McGregor, he’ll be fighting in a 12 round fight against Mayweather without the chance to slowly increase his stamina. It leaves McGregor no choice but to go after Mayweather early to try and knock him out before he gassed out.

Dana White, the president of the UFC, says he has no doubts in the ability of McGregor to win fights. White believes McGregor is capable of doing what he says he will. McGregor has been mowing down his opposition in the UFC, and he hasn’t learned how to lose yet. That’s the worst type of fighter that an unbeaten aging star like Mayweather could be fighting, because it means he’s going to be in with someone that is going to be looking to tear him apart on August 26. McGregor doesn’t have quit in him like other fighters that have been corralled and taught how to lose. McGregor’s self-confidence is still sky high. It’s up to Mayweather to try and that that away from him.

“I stopped doubting Conor McGregor a long time ago,” White said via Sky Sports News. “Last night I landed at LAX and Conor landed at the same time from Ireland. We both landed at the same time and I was waiting for him to get out of the plane. He gets off a flight from Ireland, looks like he was just fitted at Armani, walks off the plane and says, ‘I will knock this man out within four rounds.’”

The good thing about McGregor predicting an early knockout is he’s got his head on his shoulders right. The smart thing for McGregor to do is to shoot for a quick knockout. If McGregor lets Mayweather get ramped up with his offense, he’ll settle into a pattern and end up jabbing his head off for 12 rounds. McGregor isn’t accustomed to getting hit a lot in his fights. In the UFC, a fighter doesn’t last long if they get hit a lot in the first round or two. They don’t build up their ability to take heavy shots, as they don’t last long if they do get hit.

McGregor shouldn’t wait until the later rounds before he goes after the 40-year-old Mayweather, being that he might not be around by that point. Even if McGregor does last until the 10th or 11th, he might be too punch drunk by that point in the fight for him to mount a sufficient rally for him to get a knockout. In the UFC, McGregor has generally been at his best in the first 3 rounds. That’s when he’s looked the strongest and his punches appearing explosive. It’s going to be different in the boxing ring with Mayweather for McGregor if he doesn’t look to take him out right away.

Mayweather hasn’t been fighting for the last 2 years since 2015. He’s living the soft life of a multi-millionaire. I don’t care what Mayweather did in the past. When you get to be his age and you become inactive, it takes away a lot of the boxing skills that you once had. But importantly, Mayweather has had things cushy. Being filthy rich, Mayweather is now accustomed to living soft, sitting in soft chairs and comfortable cars with padding.

Mayweather hasn’t had to sweat and toil inside the boxing ring. He’s had it comfortable like a lot of rich millionaires. The combination of being rich, inactive and old could very well turn around and bite Mayweather on his backside when he gets inside the ring with McGregor. It’s not good to be old in boxing, and it’s even worse to be inactive and old. I don’t think it’s good for a fighter’s skills to be sitting on their backsides for 2 years, not fighting and getting old like Mayweather.

McGregor has a chance just because of Mayweather’s decision to retire two years ago instead of fighting until the bitter end like most fighters in boxing. Fighters usually retire when their competition proves to be too good for them. Mayweather has done the opposite. He retired while he was still on top more or less. I don’t know if you can say that Mayweather was truly on top when he retired. He was facing weak opposition after his win over Saul Canelo Alvarez. Manny Pacquiao was old and injured when Mayweather finally fought him. Mayweather didn’t fight the talented welterweights Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr., Danny Garcia or Shawn Porter.

“Conor is a madman. Conor is a madman,” said White. ”He’s going to let Floyd know what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it and everybody’s been saying to me this whole time, ‘Do you think that Conor can really beat Floyd Mayweather?’ Pacquiao just got beat by a school teacher, okay.”

Pacquiao just got exposed for being an old man in his 12 round unanimous decision loss to Jeff Horn on July 2 in Brisbane, Australia. McGregor might be able to do the same thing to the 40-year-old Mayweather with his youthful energy. When fighters get old, it doesn’t matter how skilled they were in their prime. Energy and youth often surpasses the boxing skills of an older fighter. We’ve seen it happen again and again in boxing. Heavyweight Rocky Marciano wasn’t known for having a great skillset, and yet he was able to knockout better fighters than him like Joe Louis and Joe Walcott. Why did Marciano knock them out? Marciano beat them, because they were older than him, and they couldn’t handle his youth and the power that comes from being young. McGregor could do the same thing to Mayweather if he’s not the same fighter he was 2 years ago. It’s physically impossible for a fighter to emerge as the same guy they were when they sit on the side lines for 2 years.

If you look at the history of boxing or any other sport, an athlete is not the same when they don’t compete for 2 or more years. What we don’t know is what percentage Mayweather has lost from his game. If he’s lost 20 to 30 percent of his boxing skills, then that might be enough for McGregor to beat him on August 26.

Mayweather and McGregor will be kicking off their 4-city press tour on Tuesday to help hype their August 26 fight. The tour starts in Los Angeles today, and then goes to Toronto on Wednesday, New York the day after that on Thursday, and then London on Friday in the UK.