This is it. Saturday is when all the hype and trash talk between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor reaches its peak, as the two will face off in the boxing ring at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The fighters squared off for the final time during Friday’s official weigh-in after going back and forth at each other for two months. On Saturday, one fighter will be silenced while the other becomes the face of the fight game.
Both fighters came in under the 154-pound limit. Mayweather, as expected, weighed in at 149.5 pounds, while McGregor stepped on the scales at a cool 153 pounds.
The fight is happening. This is a not a dream anymore. Let’s sit back and enjoy the chaos, shall we?
Fight Schedule
PPV Card (9 p.m. ET)
- Floyd Mayweather Jr. (-450) vs. Conor McGregor (+325), super welterweight
- Badou Jack (-450) vs. Nathan Cleverly (+325), light heavyweight
- Gervonta Davis (-5000) vs. Francisco Fonseca (+1400), junior lightweight
- Andrew Tabiti (-300) vs. Steve Cunningham (+230), cruiserweight
Undercard (7 p.m. ET on Fox)
- Yordenis Ugas (-190) vs. Thomas Dulorme (+155), welterweight
- Juan Heraldez (+180) vs. Jose Miguel Borrego (-230), junior welterweight
- Kevin Newman vs. Antonio Hernandez, super middleweight
- Savannah Marshall vs. Sydney LeBlanc, super middleweight
Odds are according to OddsShark.
Prediction
Saturday’s main event will be a fight that will never be forgotten. Forget about breaking the gate and PPV records, this is about boxing vs. MMA. Even though this fight is happening in a boxing ring—Mayweather would get torched inside the Octagon—that doesn’t mean fans of both sports are looking for bragging rights over which discipline is superior.
Mayweather is 49-0 for a reason; he’s been the best boxer there has been over the past two decades. But McGregor is not a boxer. He is a fighter. And while a boxer can’t defeat Mayweather, a fighter sure could.
The looks McGregor will give Mayweather inside of the ring are things he will never have seen before. The footwork and different stances McGregor can fight in will be overwhelming. Unlike Mayweather’s past opponents, the Irishman will show no respect to Money’s counterpunching ability. And why should he?
McGregor is willing to take a punch to give one, and there aren’t many boxing fans or pundits who would argue Mayweather has more punching power than Saturday’s opponent. The UFC lightweight champion will eat shots, but he’ll land clean on an unsuspecting opponent who won’t be in his usual defensive shell to block shots.
The Mayweather vs. a southpaw theory is a bit overblown, so it’s not worth going there. But McGregor does possess knockout power in his left hand, and it only takes one clean shot to change the dynamic of this fight. Notorious predicted a one-round finish, but that’s unrealistic.
What is more realistic is that McGregor wears down Mayweather with an aggressive pace, leaving the 40-year-old vulnerable in the middle rounds to a combination in the fifth, when he will overextend on a right straight, allowing McGregor the window to land a left hook to Mayweather’s chin, sending him to the canvas, as the underdog predicted.
Mystic Mac strikes again.
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