In the build up to Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather, bias obscured predictions from both MMA and boxing communities.
Generally speaking, the MMA side of the equation perhaps bought a little too much into Conor McGregor’s unrivalled self-belief. Some folks genuinely thought that McGregor could achieve the impossible by beating arguably the greatest boxer ever in his professional debut.
UFC flyweight king Demetrious Johnson calling it the ‘perfect match-up’ for McGregor immediately springs to mind. As it turned out, it most certainly was not a favourable bout for ‘The Notorious’.
A large portion of boxing personalities, however, wasn’t giving McGregor any hope in hell of even being competitive against Floyd Mayweather. Through fits of laughter, crossover star Heather Hardy predicted a fourth round finish for Mayweather while Max Kellerman was certain the UFC star wouldn’t be able to land a single punch.
McGregor lasted until the 10th and landed some very good digs on the undefeated prizefighter. It was competitive, at least in the first few rounds.
Easier said than done #MayweathervsMcGregor https://t.co/yAb1IVTQth
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 28, 2017
Just a quick recap for the half dozen of you who missed 2017’s unmissable event. McGregor took the first three rounds and was competitive for the next couple. Although Mayweather’s gameplan appeared to be to stay a bit gun-shy in the early exchanges to tire his adversary out, he did somewhat struggle with McGregor’s awkward style and was tagged a few times.
When McGregor started gassing around the fifth round, Mayweather utilised his monstrous gas tank, huge experience and lethal skills to dominate. While McGregor tried to make things a little dirty, for example, by using hammerfists in the clinch, Mayweather did things like turn his body away to force the referee to step in and separate.
There was a noticeable drop-off in McGregor’s performance from the eighth round onwards once he had spent all his energy. That’s when Mayweather went on the offensive, put his gloves in the air and began teeing off.
Who saw that coming? Well, someone actually saw it play out exactly like that and it wasn’t a boxing mind or even a striking coach. Famed Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner John Danaher deserves the money belt for the prediction he gave before the two warriors stepped inside the ring.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYQqWYjAqsz/?hl=en&taken-by=danaherjohn
That last line is also true. Mayweather would not fare nearly as well if he stepped inside the Octagon to fight McGregor in MMA.
