The stage is finally set for the boxing match that a lot of people have been waiting for. Floyd Mayweather will come out of retirement to face Conor McGregor in a fight that could shatter pay-per-view records. Mayweather has been untouchable in the boxing ring while McGregor has been dominant in the UFC. The issue for McGregor is that this is a boxing match and not a mixed martial arts affair. Will he be able to hang or will Floyd get to 50-0?
Here is a look at how this fight, which will take place in Las Vegas on August 26th.
What You Need To Know About Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather retired with a record of 49-0 and has won boxing titles in five different weight classes, including at 154 pounds, which is where this fight will be fought. He is known as arguably the best defensive boxer that the sport has ever seen and even though he is 40 years old, Mayweather hasn’t taken much punishment, especially in his last few fights where his opponents are fortunate to get a clean punch on him. He is lethally accurate with his punching as well as he doesn’t need as many strikes as others to do damage.
What You Need To Know About Conor McGregor
McGregor is 21-3 in mixed martial arts and after winning the UFC featherweight championship, he moved up to lightweight and won that belt as well. McGregor has a boxing background and 18 of his wins have come via TKO/KO, and most of his MMA strikes come from his hand. His counter-left has given him a lot of success and he knocked out Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds with it. He has been out of action since taking the lightweight belt from Eddie Alvarez in November, and he just celebrated the birth of his first child while negotiations went on for this super-fight with Mayweather.
Outlook
The real action for this fight will come in the build-up as both Mayweather and McGregor are masters in the art of promotion. This is a fight that the mainstream sports networks are going to cover, and you can also expect a lot of networks that aren’t known for sports to cover this fight, which is going to do insane pay-per-view numbers, not just in North America, but in Europe and especially in McGregor’s home country of Ireland, where he is incredibly well supported.
As for the fight itself, Mayweather is a massive favorite of -750 over McGregor, who is priced at +500. It’s going to be interesting to see just how aggressive McGregor is against Mayweather, who is a wonderful counter-puncher, which is usually McGregor’s territory in the octagon. McGregor has a two-inch reach over Mayweather, but that’s nothing that Mayweather hasn’t dealt with in the past.
McGregor has looked like a great boxer against MMA fighters, who practice boxing, but they also have to spend their time at practice doing other things like jiu-jitsu and kickboxing. Mayweather has trained boxing his entire life and has made others that are trained boxers looked silly. McGregor will get a big payday out of this, and if it was an MMA fight, it would be a different story. But it is boxing, and Mayweather should be able to go to 50-0, which is where it will probably end for him.
Boxing Betting Pick: Mayweather
If you’re looking for the boxing betting lines, Shangri La has the latest odds for the McGregor-Mayweather fight.
