Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor is right around the corner, an it continues to steal the limelight as we steadily approach August 26th.
McGregor is set to make his professional boxing debut in Las Vegas against, arguably, the greatest boxer of all time in “Money” in a 12 round 154-pound fight. “The Notorious One” brought in the likes of former two-weight boxing champ Paulie Malignaggi to spar against, and has been putting in rounds nearly every day as he prepares for the biggest fight in his combat sports career.
Earlier today (Mon. August 7, 2017) former WBC and IBF welterweight boxing champ Andre Berto joined The MMA Hour to talk about the upcoming bout between McGregor and Mayweather, and revealed that he is actually good friends with the Irish mixed martial arts (MMA) champion. Berto admitted that he believes McGregor could ‘for sure’ be the one to finally dethrone Mayweather from the top of the boxing world (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“When it comes to Conor, I tell people: He’s a star,” Berto said. “For some reason under that pressure and under those lights and under that atmosphere, he knows how to rise to the occasion. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, he’s one of those special guys that really can thrive in these types of environments, man.
“I just don’t put too much past him. I’ve been able to see and able to go to a few of this fights and really see how he really soaks up that atmosphere and he gets energy from it, where a lot of people really break down or it allows them to fold. He gets energy from that and he knows how to thrive. If it was a guy in the UFC or MMA that can do it, I believe he would be the one, for sure.”
As for how he sees the fight going down, Berto listed a number of possible outcomes for August 26th. The first being McGregor coming out strong after the opening bell and possibly landing a big shot that puts Mayweather down. He can also envision a scenario in which Mayweather goes out and completely out-boxes the Irishman and possibly cuts him or simply beats him down.
In the end, Berto knows anything can happen in the fight game and that no one possibility can be ruled out:
“I see Conor coming in there really showing that bravado, showing that cockiness and showing that he’s really there to fight,” Berto said. “And somewhat trying to steal the stage from Floyd just with his antics and he kind of gets Floyd into a mind-game situation, has him pulling some type of mistakes and [Mayweather] gets caught with a big shot and gets hurt. And [McGregor] could stop him.”
“Or I see Floyd not playing into any of these antics and being who he is, to stay poised and to stay sharp and let his boxing skills just pick Conor apart. And either late rounds stop Conor just from the accumulation of shots or maybe cuts or just being beat up, or just outboxing him for 12 rounds and just trying to make him look silly.”
“It’s the fight game — anything can happen. It’s either Conor catches him early, finishes him or Floyd is gonna outboxing him and makes him look silly and tries to embarrass him.”
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