Tag: Conor McGregor vs Floyd mayweather

Conor McGregor Apparently Wanted Paulie Malignaggi Fight In The UFC

In the months leading up to Conor McGregor’s all-out circus of a boxing match with all-time great Floyd Mayweather on August 26, most of the hype actually centered on McGregor’s beef with former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi, who was brought in to spar with the UFC champion. The prideful competitors, who had a bit of […]

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In the months leading up to Conor McGregor’s all-out circus of a boxing match with all-time great Floyd Mayweather on August 26, most of the hype actually centered on McGregor’s beef with former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi, who was brought in to spar with the UFC champion.

The prideful competitors, who had a bit of pre-installed beef already, saw their relationship implode in relatively short order when a media frenzy erupted over photos where McGregor allegedly knocked Malignaggi down in sparring. The boxer claimed the photos had been spun to favor McGregor, and that the Irishman’s camp had given him every disadvantage possible to make their fighter look good, including how they supposedly rushed him to the ring right after several consecutive hours of travel.

UFC president Dana White eventually released a very brief video of the footage, and it appeared that McGregor at least knocked the former champion down, even if he did seem to slightly push him in what became the center of a hotbed of heated discussion. Most thought Malignaggi was simply trying to get one last huge payday against McGregor, and no one could blame them as their alleged rivalry spilled over into a heated confrontation at the Mayweather vs. McGregor arrivals.

“The Money Fight” happened after a whirlwind summer of exhausting promotion, and Mayweather beat McGregor by tenth-round stoppage. Most of the talk surrounding “The Notorious” then shifted to his potential trilogy match with Nate Diaz in the UFC, but McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh recently unveiled that his student was aiming for a bout with Malignaggi at the launch of the Original Penguin AW17 collection in Dublin (via MMA Fighting) yesterday.

However, he wanted it in a different venue:

“Conor wanted that. He said to me, ‘Let’s get him in the Octagon’, and I said that there was no way that he would fight in MMA. You’ve got to be able to prove yourself in the arena. When Conor wanted a boxing license they could look at the Diaz 2 fight where there was more or less 25 minutes of boxing. Why would Paulie go to MMA? He’d never go to MMA.

“Now, Conor could tweet now and say ‘I’m fighting Paulie Malignaggi’, and I guess I would be wrong then.”

MMA Fighting on YouTube

The fight would obviously bring a rivalry-fueled narrative, but with McGregor one of the hottest names in combat sports right now, there still wasn’t a whole lot of reasons for him to fight a retired boxer other than the perceived dollar amount involved.

Kavanagh revealed why McGregor did want to fight Malignaggi, however, naming the boxer’s supposed (and repeated) disrespect of the superstar’s skills during a time he was still working with their team:

“It wasn’t just general stuff explaining how he was part of the camp. He had to go back to New York to do some promotion for the Andre Ward fight, and straightaway he was disrespecting (McGregor’s) power. He was saying this and that, and I was thinking, ‘What are you doing, you have to come back here and spar Conor in seven days?’”

“This guy is a former world champion, he should know that you should keep your mouth shut until the fight is over – then write a book, then do fifty interviews. That would have been no problem, we would have no issue with that. But you can’t go the next day and the day after that and the day after that, and start giving away ideas we have.

“That’s what threw me off, he wasn’t acting like a professional.”

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Miesha Tate Picks Conor McGregor Over GSP

Following his TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather in “The Money Fight” on August 26, the MMA world is anxiously awaiting just what UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s next move will be. A rumor recently surfaced that longtime former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would call out “The Notorious” if he were to get by middleweight champion Michael […]

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Following his TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather in “The Money Fight” on August 26, the MMA world is anxiously awaiting just what UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s next move will be.

A rumor recently surfaced that longtime former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would call out “The Notorious” if he were to get by middleweight champion Michael Bisping in his comeback bout in the main event of November 4’s UFC 217 from New York, and it’s hardly a bad idea given the UFC’s need for big-name bouts after a horrendous 2017.

So that’s naturally lead to some discussion about whom would win the proposed super fight, and former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate recently weighed in on the topic on her “MMA Tonight” podcast (via MMA Fighting). According to “cupcake,” McGregor has proven her wrong when she doubted him, so she can no longer count him out.

In her eyes, he holds the speed advantage over the larger GSP – in addition to a strategic edge:

“Conor McGregor, I’ve underestimated the guy a number of times, thinking he wasn’t going to win some of the fights that he won and he did it. The man is truly in a league of his own. When it comes to his game planning, when it comes to his trash talking, when it comes to getting inside people’s heads, nobody does it better than Conor McGregor. So I absolutely would not count him out in a fight like that.

“I think the speed favors him. I think he has great striking and I think the fact that GSP’s been out for so long, I think Conor McGregor can put together a strategy to beat pretty much anybody and I think the matchup actually favors Conor.”

High praise from a woman who’s been around the top levels of the sport for many years, one who’s admittedly a St-Pierre fan. She knows the precision he brings to the octagon, yet gave McGregor a mental edge she deemed difficult to get around for the all-time great:

“I feel almost bad saying that because I’ve been a huge GSP fan for a really long time. He’s perfect when he fights. Maybe not the most exciting fighter you’ve ever watched but he’s almost perfect and that’s so hard to do. If you’ve been an athlete in any sport, to have a perfect game or a perfect match or a perfect bout, it almost never happens.

“You watch him go out there and he’s pretty much perfect in all of his fights. He never waivers from his strategy and he’s like a robot, like somebody’s controlling a controller somewhere and he’s just doing exactly what he needs to do to get through those fights. But I think with this one, Conor’s just so hard to beat and he’s so hard to get around mentally. I think the speed actually, being the smaller guy, does favor Conor.”

Met with at least some degree of doubt, Tate acknowledged that picking the Irish star over St-Pierre may sound a bit crazy, but cited the fact that McGregor has predicted the result of many of his high-profile bouts.

She thought he was going to lose to Nate Diaz in their UFC 202 rematch, and he did not. Tate also thinks St-Pierre has never been made to deal with the nonstop mental onslaught of an elite trash talker like McGregor, something that could affect the fight.

To top it all off, Tate thought he would be easily handled by Mayweather in the boxing ring, yet he again proved her wrong by lasting 10 rounds with arguably the greatest defensive boxer of all time. For that reason, the still-evolving McGregor would do well against the returning – and rusty – all-time great former champion in the potential match:

“Yes. I know that sounds crazy, but dude, crazier things have been said about Conor and he’s done it. He literally predicts his exact what he’s gonna do in every fight. When he lost to Nate Diaz, I thought he was gonna lose again and he came out and he had the right game plan. He’s just brilliant. He knows how to figure out people.

“Not to mention, GSP has never had to deal with someone’s berating, that constant mental barrage that Conor McGregor does. Something is there. People haven’t quite figured it out but there’s something, an element that Conor McGregor adds that’s not just his skillset. He gets inside people’s heads and he ruins them before they even step inside the octagon. To say that he couldn’t do to GSP when he’s done it to everyone else, it’s insane to think that he couldn’t do that.

“So I just think he would probably do well. He’s evolving, he’s very athletic, he’s heavy-handed. I think he could knock out a lot of guys bigger than him. Look how well he did against Mayweather. I was so impressed with how he did there. I thought he was gonna lose that fight handily and he hung in there tough.”

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Pic: Floyd Mayweather Hangs Massive McGregor Painting In Mansion

All-time boxing great Floyd Mayweather may have stopped Conor McGregor in the tenth round of their “Money Fight” on August 26, but that doesn’t mean he won’t give “The Notorious” some high praise in his house. Early this morning Mayweather posted a photograph online of a new dual mural he hung in his Beverly Hills, Calif. […]

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All-time boxing great Floyd Mayweather may have stopped Conor McGregor in the tenth round of their “Money Fight” on August 26, but that doesn’t mean he won’t give “The Notorious” some high praise in his house.

Early this morning Mayweather posted a photograph online of a new dual mural he hung in his Beverly Hills, Calif. mansion, one depicting he and his recent foe, with whom he earned a reported payday upwards of $300 million when it’s all said and done:

The buildup to the monumental super fight, which had supposedly broken several various pay-per-view records following a heavily hyped world tour that took place in four cities and three countries, was filled with venomous trash talk and controversy, but now, the two carry some sort of ‘respect’ for one another after they made record paydays fighting.

Mayweather loves his money, so it appears anyone who helps him make a mountain of just that is alright in his book. Even to the point of hanging a massive painting of them in his house.

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Nine Reasons 2017 Is The UFC’s Worst Year Ever

Despite a blockbuster event in Mayweather vs. McGregor that actually took place in a boxing ring rather than the octagon, 2017 has been a slump for the UFC. Injuries, failed drug tests, high-profile defections…it’s fair to say that the transition from ZUFFA to WME-IMG has not been a smooth one. Superstars like Jon Jones and […]

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Despite a blockbuster event in Mayweather vs. McGregor that actually took place in a boxing ring rather than the octagon, 2017 has been a slump for the UFC. Injuries, failed drug tests, high-profile defections…it’s fair to say that the transition from ZUFFA to WME-IMG has not been a smooth one.

Superstars like Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey whom the UFC once counted on are no longer there. As for McGregor, it’s hard to believe that after cashing out nearly $100 million in his 10-round boxing effort against Floyd Mayweather, that the Irishman would be so keen to fight in the octagon for $3 to $5 million.

It’s translated to a brutal year for pay-per-view sales that has only been furthered by the post-Mayweather vs. McGregor slog. Let’s take a look at the exact reasons that 2017 is the worst year ever for the UFC:

9. Oversaturation/Interim Titles

Men’s flyweight, women’s strawweight, women’s bantamweight.. sometime’s it’s too much for fans to care enough to keep up with.

There was once a time where there were only five weight divisions and five champions to remember. The rankings held more weight than they do now, and there was never a title fight without a well-known contender.

2017 has seen the birth of two new weight classes, with champions coming and going in a flash (Germaine de Randamie), to the point where it’s hard to take these divisions seriously.

To top it off, every division seems to have an interim champion, and now, those ‘champion’s’ don’t even necessarily fight the champion in their next bout, as we’re seeing with the rapidly approaching UFC 216 main event between Tony Ferguson.

Sometimes less is more, something the UFC failed to realize in 2017.

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Five Reasons UFC Has To Pay Conor McGregor Whatever He Wants

In many ways, the UFC has created a monster it can no longer control in current lightweight and former featherweight champion Conor McGregor. As their biggest draw and their only superstar following Jon Jones’ third failed drug test and Ronda Rousey’s departure from the sport, the newly-bought promotion is at the mercy of the one […]

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In many ways, the UFC has created a monster it can no longer control in current lightweight and former featherweight champion Conor McGregor.

As their biggest draw and their only superstar following Jon Jones’ third failed drug test and Ronda Rousey’s departure from the sport, the newly-bought promotion is at the mercy of the one and only name who can truly drive a top-selling pay-per-view (PPV) card.

Now in the wake of his blockbuster boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, it’s fair to say that McGregor is calling his own shots. If the UFC wants any shot at delivering the numbers they absolutely need, they’re going to have to bend the knee to McGregor and pay him what he wants or risk driving the UFC further into the depths of the slog that their absolutely atrocious 2017 has wrought.

We broke down why that is and how McGregor came to be his own boss in the UFC. Check out our five reasons the UFC simply has no choice but to pay the Irishman.

5. Sinking PPV Sales

There is a common argument that the quality of UFC pay-per-views has gone down considerably since Zuffa sold the promotion to WME-IMG in 2016.

Whether due to constant injuries, weight-cutting issues, failed drug tests and the like, fans have voiced their displeasure with the UFC’s product as of late.

For whatever reason, PPV sales have been in a slump for some time now with the exception of July’s UFC 214, which is likely the last time we see Jon Jones in the octagon for years to come.

The only fighter that consistently draws PPV buys is McGregor, and with that distinction comes great power, power which “Notorious” uses wisely to his advantage.

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Floyd Mayweather Not Impressed By Conor McGregor Landing More Punches Than Manny Pacquiao

It’s only been a few weeks since the massive boxing showdown between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. The most newsworthy thing to come out of this bout was the unexpected success McGregor had early while competing against an all-time great boxer. As seen in the fight, McGregor held his […]

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It’s only been a few weeks since the massive boxing showdown between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. The most newsworthy thing to come out of this bout was the unexpected success McGregor had early while competing against an all-time great boxer.

As seen in the fight, McGregor held his own in the early rounds and actually won some of them. By doing this, it impressed boxing aficionados and former foes alike. By looking at the stats, the UFC champion landed more punches against Mayweather than some of the biggest names the boxing champion has faced, including Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley, and Miguel Cotto.

To say that is impressive would be a major understatement. However, Mayweather has come out and stated in footage from FightHype.com that McGregor shouldn’t let that stat get to his head though. The boxing legend believes that McGregor’s success had everything to do with giving the fans a show and wasn’t a result of anything McGregor was doing.

“That’s because I wasn’t counter-punching and boxing,” said Mayweather when asked about McGregor outlanding Pacquiao, Cotto, and Mosley (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “The reason why he probably landed a higher percentage or landed more shots than those guys was because I was coming straight ahead, I was barely moving, knocking his shots down a little bit and just breaking him down. That was the game plan, let him shoot everything. I know he was gonna shoot shots from awkward positions, but the game plan was to dig into the body with good shots, hit him with left hooks, hit him with straight right hands and keep walking towards him, keep pressing him and pushing him back.

“I could have just stayed on the outside, out-boxed him and counter-punched him, and probably still stop him down the stretch but that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to press and push him.”

McGregor had a clear cut strategy in this fight, which was to pressure Mayweather and it worked out to perfection. There was a downside to this game plan, which was him getting tired and eventually being stopped in the tenth round after seriously being hurt. Mayweather’s strategy of walking him down was something they were not prepared for and ended up costing them the fight.

“My thing is this, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. He can come out fast hands, use his range, using different angles, and after the first four or five rounds, he wasn’t the same fighter anymore.

“I told you guys I was going to go straight ahead and I know going straight ahead I was gonna take some contact, I was gonna get hit with some shots, but I wanted to give the fans, and everybody around the world an exciting fight and I feel that’s what we did.”

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