Conor McGregor throws Capoeira kicks, talks for days, and practices touch-butt with that dork in the park with the pony tail, but his fight game is, in reality, a straight left hand. Many fans believe that with his youth, size, and above all that straight left, McGregor has a chance of defeating Mayweather.
However, that straight left never stopped Nate Diaz, and it landed many times, in 4 oz gloves. And at MayMac on August 26, the gloves will be 10 oz. which changes a punch.
McGregor recently brought in former IBF junior welterweight and WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi to spar. They were presumably sparring in 16 oz. gloves, and Malignaggi wasn’t feeling it.
It’s definitely above average,” said Malignaggi on The Jim Rome Show Wednesday. “I wouldn’t say it’s ‘Oh my God’ power. This is what I call ‘Oh my God’ power, even in sparring, and you’re like ‘Oh my God,’ like wow, this guy really hits hard.”
Now, ‘Oh my God’ power is very rare. There’s above average power, so if he lands a good shot on you, I mean granted, with small fight gloves he will hurt you, but it’s not ‘Oh my God’ power where every time he touches you you’re like my goodness, this is very uncomfortable. It’s not that kind of power, but it’s good enough.
Conor is a tough guy, he’s trying his best to win the fight. He’s trying to put together a particular game plan that’s a bit awkward.
The way I described this is he knows what he wants to do and he has a method to the mayhem. And the work was good, the work was rough, the work was good. We did 8 hard rounds. We were supposed to do 6, we ended up going 8. I think some of it had to do with the bad blood for maybe he had for some of the talking trash that I did, but we did go pretty good, and he showed me at least he is serious about this.
I can’t say based on a sparring session, oh I’m going to pick this guy to win the fight. But I will say this, he’s serious about what he wants to do. He has an awkwardness to where he can land some shots, and I wouldn’t say his power is what the reputation holds it for. I wouldn’t say it’s that strong, but his power is enough to where you definitely should respect it.
Malignaggi also speculated that McGregor might not be one and done with boxing.
He might box again, Malignaggi said. I was thinking the same thing. You can make more money in boxing. We have the Ali Act that we’re protected by that at least. It’s not going to prevent you from being screwed 100-percent, but it prevents you from being the way they screw fighters in mixed martial arts.
So I think there’s a possibility Conor might box again, realizing he can make more money this way and realizing he can keep a bigger chunk and percentage of the money he brings in as opposed to having to share most of it with everybody else. So I don’t think it’s a far fetch conclusion that Conor boxes again, but I think for now, the focus should be on one person and one fighter and that should be the Mayweather fight.
Conor McGregor boxes Floyd Mayweather on August 26, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
