CAN’T PAY ME TO WATCH THIS ‘FIGHT’
“The worst mismatch in boxing history.” That quote could easily be attached to next Saturday’s “bout” between all-time great boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather and MMA mega-star Conor “Notorious” McGregor, but the quote was actually attributed to the late heavyweight champ Joe Louis.
He was ridiculing the 1957 heavyweight championship match between title holder Floyd Patterson and challenger Pete Rademacher, the 1956 Melbourne Olympic gold-medal winner.
Rademacher became the first and only challenger to fight for the heavyweight title in his pro debut.
He actually dropped Patterson in round two, but was subsequently knocked down seven times en route to being stopped in six.
If only Mayweather-McGregor could offer up that much action.
This “fight” is a sham. It is three-card monte on a large pay-per-view scale.
The bout has no chance of being a knock-down, drag-out fight. The only way this “fight” could live up to the endless hype is if both guys exited the ring on stretchers and that ain’t gonna happen.
There is more chance of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un wearing a Speedo in public than Mayweather-McGregor being competitive.
Mayweather, even at 40, is still 10 years better than McGregor, who has never had one professional prizefight.
Don’t tell me about McGregor’s success in the octagon. What made him a success in MMA is not available to him against Mayweather. There will be no leg kicks, elbow smashes or wrestling take down moves.
Mayweather will beat McGregor just as he has defeated all 49 of his previous opponents. He’ll win by using his jab to capture a boring, 12-round decision with no risks taken. If the knockout comes, so be it.
He has only two knockouts in his last 11 bouts. One was legit versus Ricky Hatton back in 2007 and the most recent in 2011 against Victor Ortiz who forgot to protect himself at all times.
I’m not a fan of either the HOWARD SIMMONS/NEWS Mayweather or McGregor personas. Their crassness is all about selling the “fight” through insults. This is an exhibition, plain and simple. Mayweather states he is going right after McGregor because he owes it to his fans after his lackluster performance versus Manny Pacquiao back in 2015. Please!!! If you really wanted to give something back to the fans, you wouldn’t charge $100 for this train wreck. How about 50 bucks instead, Money? And speaking of train wrecks, if we absolutely knew where and when a train wreck would take place, a bunch of us would be there with lawn chairs at the ready. There is the rub. This a money fight, but for the fighters only. There are rumors that Mayweather will make over 300 million and McGregor, 100 million. Good for them and bad for us. I’m not into train wrecks. I still enjoy a good, evenlymatched boxing match. This is a rip-off of the highest order. To make matters worse, the Nevada Athletic Commission changed their own rules and will allow the combatants to wear eight-ounce gloves. Fighters weighing over 147 pounds must use 10-ounce gloves, according to the Nevada rules. Not anymore. If anyone gets seriously hurt, the commission should be hit with the biggest of all lawsuits. One of the best fighters of all-time versus a novice, although a younger, bigger and stronger novice, is not a “fight” I want to watch. And no, I won’t be looking to steal the telecast. So what do I do next Saturday? I’ll be doing my usual Saturday night shift at WFAN and won’t ask my boss to buy the fight. Both Mayweather and McGregor are lacking morally after putting the country and world through their low-rent press conferences with sexist, racist and homophobic comments just to earn more pay-perview eyeballs. They deserve each other. We don’t deserve them, nor do we need to watch. Tony Paige is the overnight sports talk show host at WFAN radio and the former president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.