McGregor doesn’t stand a puncher’s chance against Mayweather
Long before Floyd Mayweather would agree to face Conor McGregor, there would be a night in Atlantic City and a challenge that actually meant something. That’s when Mayweather stood across a Boardwalk Hall ring in 2005 and stared at Arturo Gatti.
Everything that McGregor pretends to be, Gatti was. He was violent. He was willing to bleed. He was popular and charismatic. And, unlike McGregor, he was one of the great boxers of his era, trained, seasoned, experienced. He was 39-6 as a professional at the time, and the six were as memorable as the 39, for even in defeat Gatti proved fearless and ferocious.
The fight, if that’s what it could have been called, lasted six rounds before Gatti’s trainer, Buddy McGirt, invited referee Earl Morton to call it a night. If Gatti hit Mayweather at all, few can remember it a dozen years later. There hadn’t been any main event so one-sided in Atlantic City since Mike Tyson assaulted Michael Spinks.
Mayweather has had other fights, 49 as a professional. He’s beaten Shane Mosley and Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. And everybody else he has faced. When he confronts McGregor Aug. 26 in Vegas, some will be intrigued. McGregor is an MMA hero, known for his heavy hands. Puncher’s chance; that’s what they’ll say. But they said that, and more, about the late, great Gatti. Yet, as it happened, he never had a chance at all. Because even a puncher needs to land a punch.
The other night against the Houston Astros, the Phillies were shut out, fell 30 games under .500, needed to have their centerfielder benched, saw a rookie pitcher have a troublesome inning and cringed as their third baseman continued an 0-for-a-homestand slump.
Leave it to Pete Mackanin to make it all sound like the World Series pregame show.
Nick Pivetta, who fell to 3-6? “It’s good to see him develop and get better with his secondary pitches. That was very encouraging. I’m real happy about that,” said the manager.
Maikel Franco, who hadn’t had a hit in five games? “One thing about Mikey I have to tell you: He hasn’t been hitting lately, but he works real hard on defense and it’s showing. Credit for Mikey for continuing to work hard on his defense,” said the manager.
Odubel Herrera, who was double-switched out of the game for failing to run out a dropped third strike? “As we all know, he’s been swinging the bat very well. He does an awful lot of good things for us. His defense is good. He swings the bat. He’s going to end up hitting over .290. Let’s put it this way: He’s in a development stage, as well,” said the manager.
It’s a good thing Mackanin’s front office has so suppressed baseball passion in its sprawling market that no one has the energy to argue. Even accepting that those were Mackanin’s honest thoughts, they were signs of a defeated manager.
Not only has 3-on-3 basketball become a summertime TV option, but it is about to be an Olympic sport. What? Something wrong with tailgate-party bean-bag tossing?
Still, before dismissing the idea, think: If somebody once said they would hang a peach basket in a YMCA and that one day it would all lead to J.J. Redick making $23 million a year, howling would have ensued.
All sports grow in sophistication. And as rudimentary and as recreational as 3-on-3 sounds, believe it: There is opportunity there for a basketball thinker. Maybe there is a strategy for throwing an outlet pass. Maybe good scouting will reveal when to switch and when instead to fight through a screen. Is it best to use three shooters? Or are rebounders more valuable? Who knows? But there are enough basketball minds in the world to figure some of that out. And if so — and if good players, not spent hangers-on — try to perfect the art, high-level 3-on-3 basketball may yet become interesting.
Every sport has its cultures. Some — like oldman managers wearing illfitting baseball uniforms — must have foreigners laughing at those goofy Americans.
Professional soccer, though, has a quirk that will forever make it a challenge to gain mainstream popularity in North America. In the MLS, good players are allowed — no, they’re expected — to up and play for some other team right in the middle of the regular season.
That’s the sport, here and abroad. The stars have obligations to both their professional and national teams. The soccer universe understands, embraces and celebrates the concept. Peace?
Yet when the Union can play a game, not win it, and then have its coach call the night a success because some of his best players were thriving at the same time for some other team, that just might not be the best way to make a Philadelphia sports fan convert from the Eagles.
The only way I would have been interested in watching Michael Phelps race a shark was if they were offering pari-mutuel wagering.