Top trainer: McGregor could be ‘waving a gun with no bullets’
Jason Parillo: “Doing crazy movements and things that McGregor usually does in a boxing match, however, will be like waving a gun with no bullets in it.”
RVCA Gym coach Jason Parillo is a former professional boxer and one of the best trainers in mixed martial arts. His students past and present include Vitor Belfort, Michael Bisping, Cris Cyborg, Tito Ortiz, and BJ Penn, among many others. Elias Cepeda spoke recently with Parillo for FloCombat about Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match.
“There’s a lot of propaganda going on in the social media world and the media world to try and bring the odds closer, and I get that,” said Parillo. “But Mayweather has too much experience.”
“I see Floyd stopping him. I think Floyd’s putting some pressure on himself. He knows that he’s a 12-round fighter, usually, over the last handful of years. I think he knows that he has to put McGregor out.”
“I don’t see Mayweather having to wait until later rounds to break him down. I see him being able to sharp-shoot him out of there a little sooner.”
There has been a great deal of hopeful conjecture that McGregor’s unorthodox attacks and set ups may surprise Mayweather.
“You can mess around with those crazy angles, especially when there’s the threat of other things – leg kicks, head kicks, takedowns,” said Parillo. “Doing crazy movements and things that McGregor usually does in a boxing match, however, will be like waving a gun with no bullets in it.”
“Mayweather doesn’t give a s***. Run around. Switch your stance. People don’t switch their stances all quick like that in boxing. They’re in too close of quarters. It doesn’t work that way.
“That was one of the things I learned about MMA right away when I started getting involved, years ago – there’s such a difference in the distance. You can get away with a lot more s*** in MMA because of the distance. That’s why you can do all that showcasing, showboating, fancy footwork, bending, breaking, and the whole nine yards.”
“It’s all about reflexes, and Mayweather has reflexes of a cat, and instincts. He sees what’s going on in there. You’ve got to have a tremendous amount of speed in there. I know Conor McGregor is quick. Yeah, he’s fast.
“Let me tell you something — Floyd Mayweather has been in there with the fastest dudes out there. These dudes have tremendous speed — speed you don’t see. Conor is a fast white boy, don’t get me wrong, but then there’s next-level speed, and Mayweather has been in front of it — and been hit by it, too.”
“He’s got a hell of a chin, too. That’s what people fail to realize — Mayweather has been hit for many, many years by hell of hard punchers, and everyone has to search through 49 fights for glimpses of when he’s been hurt. He’s got hours of fights against the highest-level fighters on the planet, the biggest punchers on the planet, and you have to scrape to find moments where he’s been rocked.”
