• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight finalized for Aug. 26 - It's on!

My pointless armchair analysis.

If Conor's going to win this it's going to be within the first 3/4 rounds. After that he's done. Floyd's almost certainly winning the fight, but I'm rooting for Conor
 
I'd love for Conor to win this, but it's almost completely certain that Floyd wins this pretty easily. What I'm most excited for actually is Conor's trash talk leading up to the fight. He's probably the best trash talker in history, no joke. This specific exchange with Jose Aldo had me in stitches: https://youtu.be/L3Ma5g1uYo4?t=9m57s

On a side note, I find it hilarious how some people are tap dancing around the argument that MMA is MUCH more similar to real fighting than boxing. No, you cannot gouge a person's eyes out or kick them in the balls but Punches, elbows, kicks, knees, ground and pound, submissions vs punching. Boxing is real fighting and it's actually an excellent foundation for MMA but it's just a foundation and not enough on its own. So Conor will likely lose because they are fighting in Floyd's wheelhouse, not a chance in hell would he ever be courageous enough to transition to MMA to fight someone so you gotta respect Conor, win or lose the guy will fight anyone.
 
I'm very curious about the undercard. I'm hoping it won't be like Mayweather vs Pacquiao in that regard.

I find this fight really fun, though Connor only has a puncher's chance (like any other boxer vs Mayweather). I personally think Connor will be aggressive, which will make the pace of the fight fun. He'll miss, but his lack of experience will give chances for Mayweather to land great shots.
 
I'd love for Conor to win this, but it's almost completely certain that Floyd wins this pretty easily. What I'm most excited for actually is Conor's trash talk leading up to the fight. He's probably the best trash talker in history, no joke. This specific exchange with Jose Aldo had me in stitches: https://youtu.be/L3Ma5g1uYo4?t=9m57s

On a side note, I find it hilarious how some people are tap dancing around the argument that MMA is MUCH more similar to real fighting than boxing. No, you cannot gouge a person's eyes out or kick them in the balls but Punches, elbows, kicks, knees, ground and pound, submissions vs punching. Boxing is real fighting and it's actually an excellent foundation for MMA but it's just a foundation and not enough on its own. So Conor will likely lose because they are fighting in Floyd's wheelhouse, not a chance in hell would he ever be courageous enough to transition to MMA to fight someone so you gotta respect Conor, win or lose the guy will fight anyone.
I'd also fight anyone for this payday.
 
I'm very curious about the undercard. I'm hoping it won't be like Mayweather vs Pacquiao in that regard.

I find this fight really fun, though Connor only has a puncher's chance (like any other boxer vs Mayweather). I personally think Connor will be aggressive, which will make the pace of the fight fun. He'll miss, but his lack of experience will give chances for Mayweather to land great shots.

Undercard will almost assuredly be a showcase for up and coming Mayweather Promotions fighter. Don't expect big names. May/Conor alone sell this card.
 
Boxing is a specialised sport but I think you guys all underestimate a few things before ruling out an upset

All UFC fighters train heavily in boxing
Conor was a boxer before MMA and a very strong amateur
Conor is a fantastic striker. Regardless of intricacies of he discipline, he has levels of skill in his striking you simply can't teach because it requires a level of fearlessness and dedication to a wide range of martial arts to learn some of the thing he does on his feet. He has actually had some an impact in MMA because he is not strictly a one discipline fighter. It makes him highly unpredictable. Now how that works in a boxing ring, I don't know yet.
This is 2017 Floyd, not 2007 Floyd
Conor studies his opponents like the bible, he picks out weaknesses in every fight and consistently exploits them. Mayweather does as well, but the difference is Conor can look through decades of material. Nobody really knows what style Conor will bring to the ring
Can Conor get under Floyds skin? Or maybe vice versa. They are both experts at this. But it could be pivotal in one of them screwing up.


I just don't see it as a simple win.

The main intricacies I think for Conor will be the different movement of boxing, he simply can't move as much as in a UFC ring because he will run out of space very quickly. But he is also extremely efficient with his movement and I imagine very adaptable.
Also will be the gloves. He has a very whippy style of punch that works with the light gloves of UFC and allow for extremely fast punches. Does he lose some of that with the big gloves? Possibly. Or maybe he gains more impact

I see the two as very similar fighters, except one is more offensive and one is more defensive. Both can take a punch. Both rely heavily on anticipation and counters. You will rarely ever see either fighter make simple mistakes when fighting like over balancing, losing their footing, missing a strike and leaving themselves exposed. I actually could see it as one of Floyds more impressive fights if it plays out like I think. Lots of slickly dodged punches, varied attacks, and pretty much a game of chess in there from both fighters.

Somebody hasn't seen McG sparring... (not good)
 
Lets go point by point

Boxing is a specialised sport but I think you guys all underestimate a few things before ruling out an upset

All UFC fighters train heavily in boxing

This is misguided. Floyd has been training boxing excusively since childhood. He was raised to be a boxer and never had any other goal in his life. Conor started training in his late teens and has to split his time between boxing, wrestling, grappling, taekwondo movement etc.


Conor was a boxer before MMA and a very strong amateur

He boxed for a couple years when he was a preteen and then stopped because he couldnt keep up with his wrestling and grappling training. He has no amateur record and he has no accomplishments in amateur boxing.

Conor is a fantastic striker. Regardless of intricacies of he discipline, he has levels of skill in his striking you simply can't teach because it requires a level of fearlessness and
dedication to a wide range of martial arts to learn some of the thing he does on his feet.

He is a fantastic striker, no objection to that point. You can teach fearlessness and dedication. You can teach heart and toughness. Saying you cant just means you lack proper context and understanding of how fighters are trained.


He has actually had some an impact in MMA because he is not strictly a one discipline fighter. It makes him highly unpredictable. Now how that works in a boxing ring, I don't know yet.

Who in high level MMA is a one disciple fighter? I can think of Maia and thats just about it, and even then, Maias kickboxing and wrestling is sneakly good. This was the case maybe 10-15 years ago but this has not been Conors contribution to the sport.


This is 2017 Floyd, not 2007 Floyd

Conor studies his opponents like the bible, he picks out weaknesses in every fight and consistently exploits them. Mayweather does as well, but the difference is Conor can look through decades of material. Nobody really knows what style Conor will bring to the ring
Can Conor get under Floyds skin? Or maybe vice versa. They are both experts at this. But it could be pivotal in one of them screwing up.

Agreed.

The main intricacies I think for Conor will be the different movement of boxing, he simply can't move as much as in a UFC ring because he will run out of space very quickly. But he is also extremely efficient with his movement and I imagine very adaptable.
Also will be the gloves. He has a very whippy style of punch that works with the light gloves of UFC and allow for extremely fast punches. Does he lose some of that with the big gloves? Possibly. Or maybe he gains more impact

Conor has borderline terrible footwork when he is not pressuring. His style has very, very strongly developed into a "counter-counter" fighter. He will pressure you very strongly and not let you breath. He will give you openings so that you can counter and he will predict your timing and attack you while youre countering. This is not something Floyd will have to worry though, he will be able to run circles around Conor and he has enough time and rounds that he doesnt ever need to open up.


I see the two as very similar fighters, except one is more offensive and one is more defensive. Both can take a punch. Both rely heavily on anticipation and counters. You will rarely ever see either fighter make simple mistakes when fighting like over balancing, losing their footing, missing a strike and leaving themselves exposed. I actually could see it as one of Floyds more impressive fights if it plays out like I think. Lots of slickly dodged punches, varied attacks, and pretty much a game of chess in there from both fighters.

This will be Floyds highlight fight. He will do things that you only do in sparring when youre messing with a young inexperieced kid.
 
Don't be surprised if Floyd gets more violent than usual.

It should go without saying that even a guy like Victor Ortiz knows how to protect himself in a boxing match better than McGregor.

Strategically, Conor will probably try to make use of those fast legs, be super active with his quick hands at long range and hope to catch Floyd with something very hard. But he won't have the conditioning to keep that up for 12 rounds(no one does) and very likely won't have the timing to make good use of it. Floyd has seen everything in a boxing ring that Conor has to offer and far worse.

I'd love for Conor to win this, but it's almost completely certain that Floyd wins this pretty easily. What I'm most excited for actually is Conor's trash talk leading up to the fight. He's probably the best trash talker in history, no joke. This specific exchange with Jose Aldo had me in stitches: https://youtu.be/L3Ma5g1uYo4?t=9m57s

On a side note, I find it hilarious how some people are tap dancing around the argument that MMA is MUCH more similar to real fighting than boxing. No, you cannot gouge a person's eyes out or kick them in the balls but Punches, elbows, kicks, knees, ground and pound, submissions vs punching. Boxing is real fighting and it's actually an excellent foundation for MMA but it's just a foundation and not enough on its own. So Conor will likely lose because they are fighting in Floyd's wheelhouse, not a chance in hell would he ever be courageous enough to transition to MMA to fight someone so you gotta respect Conor, win or lose the guy will fight anyone.

Props for keeping it real. We're not gonna see enough of that in the build up.
 
short time for the fight

the obvious answer seems like Floyd, but, hard to count a champion out, even if its a different sport
 
My pointless armchair analysis.

If Conor's going to win this it's going to be within the first 3/4 rounds. After that he's done. Floyd's almost certainly winning the fight, but I'm rooting for Conor

That's also my mindset. Loved Connor ever since he started his reign. I'll be rooting, but the chances of him pulling this win out of his ass are extremely slim.
 
short time for the fight

the obvious answer seems like Floyd, but, hard to count a champion out, even if its a different sport

key phrase, "different sport." This would but a bit more competitive if there were any aspects of this fight which involved anything that Connor had ever done professionally at any point in his entire life.

Instead we have a boxing match with exactly one boxer in it.
 
short time for the fight

the obvious answer seems like Floyd, but, hard to count a champion out, even if its a different sport

I mean you can have a champion Ping Pong player take on a champion Tennis player in either sport and I think we all know what the results will be. The Tennis champ wins a Tennis match and a Ping Pong champ would win the Ping Pong match.
 
LOL, MMA gloves. Floyd doesn't even allow his opponents to choose their own brand of gloves, much less the weight. You're not allowed to wear punchers gloves, made out of horse hair. When you fight Floyd in the contract you agree to fight with foam based gloves, that are bigger and more defensive gloves, than the horse hair ones.

I believe Conor has only boxed in some sort of school boxing contest. Looking on boxingrec, he doesn't have an amateur record. He hasn't fought amateur or pro. If Mayweather can't knock him out, that would be pathetic. I'd never watch this fight. It won't be fun. These types of fights never are. Canelo Chavez, a fight that was far less of a carnival, also a mismatch, ended up being really really boring.

This has been one of the best years for boxing in quite a while. There are some good fights coming up still, this is not one of them at all. A huge waste of time and money. It doesn't even have the veneer of being a good fight, which is why I can't get one bit excited. I get excited for most fights, but this is an obvious stinker.

Conor's trash talking isn't fun if it's just empty bullshit. If he can't rile the other guy up, since the other guy knows for a virtual fact he aint losing. There's no tension because we all know who is going to win, so it's not fun or interesting, the build up or the fight.
 

Conor's trash talking isn't fun if it's just empty bullshit
. If he can't rile the other guy up, since the other guy knows for a virtual fact he aint losing. There's no tension because we all know who is going to win, so it's not fun or interesting, the build up or the fight.

That's another strategy - Conor keeps trash talking non-stop and staying away from Mayweather; Mayweather gets pissed and steps in for an infight and BAM! Jolt counter!
 
We're one day in and I've already seen more scorching hot takes about this fight than any other sporting event

This build up is going to be LONG
 
Is Floyd going to try and knock Conor out or is he just going to dance around for the whole fight and win by decision while laughing all the way to the bank?

God, I feel bad for the idiots who might pay money to watch this.
 
Is Floyd going to try and knock Conor out or is he just going to dance around for the whole fight and win by decision while laughing all the way to the bank?

God, I feel bad for the idiots who might pay money to watch this.

He will dance around for 12 rounds. McGregor will have a hard time landing any serious blows against Mayweather. Would love to see Connor destroy him but Mayweather knows what he is doing and will most likely just play defense for the whole fight.
 
This is stupid. I don't know who I hate more. Floyd and McGregor for putting this on or the fucking meatheads who will actually take this seriously.
 
DCYdhSvWAAY1E3L.jpg:large

vF7rVgt.gif
 
The trash talk leading up to this fight is going to be legendary

Conor looks best trash talking fighters whos second language is english, for obvious reasons, otherwise he falls back to how rich he is. What exactly could he say to Floyd?
 
I really don't know what Conor will say to clown Mayweather. He can't use his patented "I make more money than you" schtick he says to other poverty UFC fighters. Maybe make fun of his age? I dunno.

Make fun of his illiteracy, make fun of his size, make fun of his compulsion to beat women, the list goes on. He has more avenues to clown on Floyd and attempts to get in his head than almost anyone else he's fought.
 
Conor looks best trash talking fighters whos second language is english, for obvious reasons, otherwise he falls back to how rich he is. What exactly could he say to Floyd?

Conor will probably attack with basic stuff like: Floyd's age, Floyd's brittle hands, Floyd's lack of KO ability, maybe go personal with domestic violence accusations, maybe bring up that Floyd's scared of his power by going with foam based gloves, maybe use fantasy match ups by saying he would have been able to easily KO Pacquiao, and maybe say that Floyd's scared to fight Conor in a MMA match even though boxers and boxing fans scream their superiority.

I think Conor will be fine on smack talk overall. Floyd benefits by feeding into Conor's smack talk. It'll be his job to sale the viability of this fight to the casual audience member. Floyd will go out of his way to help Conor have a slight edge in the media department because he has the overwhelming advantage in the fight.
 
LOLing at the people who think Conor is "one of the best trash talkers of all time." If you think that then you must be new to combat sports. He's fine for today's game, yeah, but only because fighters aren't very good at this aspect of buildup nowadays.

Conor has nothing on the trash talk legends of old. Even for today he's hit and miss - dude can be corny and cringey at times whereas the greats could come off as straight-up serial killers when they wanted to.

Fuck, Nate had him shook up good a few times when they were promo-ing together. The dude can't always hang.
 
LOLing at the people who think Conor is "one of the best trash talkers of all time." If you think that then you must be new to combat sports. He's fine for today's game, yeah, but only because fighters aren't very good at this aspect of buildup nowadays.

Conor has nothing on the trash talk legends of old. Even for today he's hit and miss - dude can be corny and cringey at times whereas the greats could come off as straight-up serial killers when they wanted to.

Like? Other than Ali it's not like combat sports have ever had a ton of great trash talkers, which is why the guys that do (like Conor) stand out. And its it like some of even Ali's stuff (gorilla, Uncle Tom) wasn't also hit and miss.
 
Conor will probably attack with basic stuff like: Floyd's age, Floyd's brittle hands, Floyd's lack of KO ability, maybe go personal with domestic violence accusations, maybe bring up that Floyd's scared of his power by going with foam based gloves, maybe use fantasy match ups by saying he would have been able to easily KO Pacquiao, and maybe say that Floyd's scared to fight Conor in a MMA match even though boxers and boxing fans scream their superiority.

I think Conor will be fine on smack talk overall. Floyd benefits by feeding into Conor's smack talk. It'll be his job to sale the viability of this fight to the casual audience member. Floyd will go out of his way to help Conor have a slight edge in the media department because he has the overwhelming advantage in the fight.

That's the thing. If you've watched Floyd you've heard the things you mentioned before. But yeah, Floyd knows how to make money. He'll probably take the back seat on trash talking and spend his time telling us how dangerous Conor is.
 
LOLing at the people who think Conor is "one of the best trash talkers of all time." If you think that then you must be new to combat sports. He's fine for today's game, yeah, but only because fighters aren't very good at this aspect of buildup nowadays.

Conor has nothing on the trash talk legends of old. Even for today he's hit and miss - dude can be corny and cringey at times whereas the greats could come off as straight-up serial killers when they wanted to.

Fuck, Nate had him shook up good a few times when they were promo-ing together. The dude can't always hang.

All these greats and you dont even drop one name
 
LOLing at the people who think Conor is "one of the best trash talkers of all time." If you think that then you must be new to combat sports. He's fine for today's game, yeah, but only because fighters aren't very good at this aspect of buildup nowadays.

Conor has nothing on the trash talk legends of old. Even for today he's hit and miss - dude can be corny and cringey at times whereas the greats could come off as straight-up serial killers when they wanted to.

Fuck, Nate had him shook up good a few times when they were promo-ing together. The dude can't always hang.

LOLing at you.
 
LOLing at the people who think Conor is "one of the best trash talkers of all time." If you think that then you must be new to combat sports. He's fine for today's game, yeah, but only because fighters aren't very good at this aspect of buildup nowadays.

Conor has nothing on the trash talk legends of old. Even for today he's hit and miss - dude can be corny and cringey at times whereas the greats could come off as straight-up serial killers when they wanted to.

Fuck, Nate had him shook up good a few times when they were promo-ing together. The dude can't always hang.

Yeah, you can see Nate Diaz rattling Conor up a bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw_e_CwPnsc

The "you're playing touch butt with that dork in the park" line is probably immortal at this point.
 
Yeah, you can see Nate Diaz rattling Conor up a bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw_e_CwPnsc

The "you're playing touch butt with that dork in the park" line is probably immortal at this point.

EKzJY0y.gif


Like? Other than Ali it's not like combat sports have ever had a ton of great trash talkers, which is why the guys that do (like Conor) stand out. And its it like some of even Ali's stuff (gorilla, Uncle Tom) wasn't also hit and miss.

All these greats and you dont even drop one name

LOLing at you.

Off the top of my head: Iron Mike, Prince Nas, RJJ, Toney, Ali, Mayorga. Edited because a couple more just popped into my head: Camacho, Hopkins, Jack Johnson for the sheer historical significance.
 
Top Bottom