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Johannesburg - Who is this Conor McGregor guy? A boxer or a dancer? Why do we even bother? Does he honestly think he stands a chance against the great Floyd “Money” Mayweather?
These are questions I had in mind after watching a promo video of McGregor on Instagram during one of his silly showboating training sessions, during which he moved from left to right like a Brazilian Capoeira dancer.
According to The Telegram, McGregor’s notable rise to fame was when he defeated José Aldo – one of the greatest pound-for-pound mixed martial artists, in December 2015 – to win the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title.
Aldo had remained unbeaten for 10 years and McGregor knocked him out in 13 seconds.
Before that, he worked as a trainee plumber in Ireland.
Let me be clear, I don’t like UFC and, whenever I watch it, my attention span lasts only as long as the first round, so excuse my ignorance.
We are expected to wake up in the wee hours of August 27 to watch Money come back from retirement – after the greatest career in boxing history, sitting at a record of 49-0 – to slug it out with McGregor, whose boxing record is sitting at 0-0 according to BoxRec.
The man from Ireland is only notable for being a martial artist who has won 21 times and lost thrice in 24 fights in an octagon ring.
Should we even call this a boxing match?
Mayweather will pull a Mike Tyson on us – he’ll walk all the way from a night club to the ring and still be victorious.
My prediction for the fight is that Mayweather will do what he has always done – use his punching speed and footwork to frustrate McGregor, who I don’t think will last for more than four rounds.
If the fight goes over four rounds, it will be just to entertain the fans because, in a real boxing ring, Mayweather would knock McGregor out in the first round.
This bout will most likely bring the beautiful sport of boxing into disrepute. It is indeed the biggest mismatch in history and will definitely be a waste of my precious morning.
Don’t get me wrong, I will watch the fight, if for nothing else than to see Money in the ring again and maybe learn one or two things from McGregor’s dance moves.
. Sadiki is an award-winning City Press photographer and a boxing enthusiast
