FLOYD IN ROUND 8
Mayweatheer cakewalk ...but don’t t rule out a Conor disqualification
IF The Notorious Irishman had not prefaced his celestial assumption by already proclaiming himself the god of boxing as well as cage fighting it would have been cause for concern.
Has all the hype enveloping tonight’s greatest show on earth turned his head so far that rather than ascending to the sporting heavens he is away with the fairies? Actually, Mr McGregor is at the mischief.
As ever in Sin City, the idol being worshipped here is mammon. He and Mr Money are not only deadly rivals at hand-to-hand combat but executive business partners in the most lucrative punch-up ever. The pair of them are selling what they expect to be the first billion-dollar boxing match.
Many believe they are flogging a dead horse, since Floyd Mayweather will be the only practised professional boxer in the ring as McGregor makes his cross- over from the Ultimate Fighting octagon to inevitable defeat.
If so, they have whipped the beast into wildly enriching life.
Forget the trifling eight-figure minimum guarantees. McGregor is sizing up a $100m-plus purse, Mayweather eyeing in excess of $300m. That presumes pay-perview TV sales higher than the record 4.5m Showtime cable network buys for Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao. The feeling of artifice surrounding this event numbed the atmosphere until the Irish contingent began flooding in on Thursday to roar for their hero.
How much of this belated buzz the green army can transfer into the T-Mobile Arena depends on how many of those who coughed up for flights and hotel rooms can afford $1,500 for the cheapest seats.
Mayweather Promotions may have priced the Arena out of a sell-out, but its president is long accustomed to functioning with relentless efficiency if a hall is either less than full or hostile to him.
Remember the fate which befell Ricky Hatton on the weekend an
invasion by 30,000 Mancunians out-yelled the Floyd followers. And unlike our favourite Hitman, McGregor is ducking for the first time between the ropes.
Mayweather has done this 49 times and never been beaten, never knocked down. The UFC community counter by citing the 11- year age difference and Mayweather concedes that at 40 he is not all the man he was. Yet despite his nocturnal habits he keeps himself in phenomenal condition.
They argue that he will be rusted by almost two years of faux retirement. They pin hope on the belief that he has never faced a fighting man as unorthodox as McGregor.
This is risible. Mayweather’s cool brilliance has accommodated all sorts. Southpaws like this opponent, aggressors, counter punchers, movers and maulers.
Also men who punch harder than The Notorious one. Remember Hatton again. And De La Hoya, And Maidana. And Corrales. And Cotto. And Mosley. And Pacquiao. The list goes on and on. McGregor’s is just starting. At the top.
Mayweather may not pack onepunch knockout power. But he hits with the punishing bursts of speed and precision accuracy which breaks down the less resilient or out-points the more resolute. McGregor’s championship years in mixed martial arts do not equip him to compete with such a refined boxing practitioner.
Cage fighters instinctively position their feet and bodies to repel the variety of assaults they face from kicking, kneeing and grappling as well as punching. When they lunge forward to counter they are off balance and exposed.
Mayweather has accepted this unusual challenge in the belief that McGregor is the ideal foil against whom to break his current record tie with Rocky Marciano of retiring on 49 wins and no defeats.
Amid the £5m betting storm, eight out of 10 punters over 30 are backing Mayweather. Me too. But how exactly will it happen?
Do not be surprised if McGregor, finding himself outclassed, finds a way out through getting himself disqualified by experienced referee Robert Byrd.
McGregor claims he will win as early as the first, no later than the fourth. The most popular call is Mayweather by stoppage in the sixth. My best guess is the eighth. But given that the world could be watching, it will probably last until Mayweather wants it to end.
So no chance, then, of McGregor being anointed a Lord of the ring? Not unless he is the beneficiary of divine intervention.