Michael Bisping thinks that Khabib Nurmagomedov would last longer in a boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather than Conor McGregor did.
Michael Bisping is an astute analyst of combat sports. That obviously comes from more than a decade spent inside the cage, but he is quite good at picking apart the minutiae of matchups and is usually right more than he’s wrong when it comes to making predictions.
But on the most recent episode of his podcast, Believe You Me, he made a prediction that might he might not be in the majority on.
Bisping was discussing the highly unlikely but much talked-about possible boxing match between Khabib Nurmagomedov and legend Floyd Mayweather. Khabib called out Floyd last week, and the two have gone back and forth about it ever since. It’s likely all promotional bluster, but that’s what we said about Floyd vs. Conor McGregor at first too, right?
Anyway, Bisping believes that while Khabib isn’t as technically proficient as McGregor, he does have a great chin and a lot of stamina. So much so, in fact, that Bisping thinks Khabib could go twelve rounds with Floyd (transcript via MMANytt):
“I swear to god, Khabib would go the distance with Mayweather. He’d go the distance with Mayweather. I’m not saying Khabib is a better boxer than McGregor, he’s not a better striker, he’s not as elusive, he’s not as slick – but he’s got a f–king chin and he’s got cardio for days. And Mayweather, at his age, he was never a knockout guy even though he did have some knockouts. He knocked out England’s very own Ricky Hatton in devastating fashion, but I don’t see it.
“He couldn’t put McGregor down and that’s what Khabib’s saying — you couldn’t put McGregor down, I put McGregor down — but [Mayweather] put McGregor down through fatigue and that was his game plan. McGregor was very, very tired and he started eating shots, and in the end he couldn’t even fight back because he was so exhausted and kind of beat up so the referee stepped in. That wouldn’t happen against Khabib and Mayweather would probably embarrass him and light him up and pick him apart all night long, but Khabib would probably go twelve rounds. Conor wasn’t far away from going twelve rounds.”
Khabib dropped McGregor early in their UFC 229 matchup, before going on to defeat him via submission in the fourth round to retain his UFC lightweight title. Mayweather defeated McGregor via 10th-round TKO in their boxing match in 2016.
Both Khabib and McGregor are currently awaiting their possible punishment from the Nevada State Athletic Commission following their respective post-fight dust-ups. The commission is expected to make a decision on October 24th.