Opinion: Why Boxing People Hate the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor Match

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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Traffic gradually slows to a halt as the cars begin to line up. Off in the distance come the warnings -- the bright orange pylons are creating single-lane space, and the police car and ambulance cherry tops swirl. Heads will inevitable turn as they always do for an accident, even though they’ve seen it before and will likely see it again. Human nature dictates it. No one ever seems to heed the caveats as they keep moving forward.

A scowl came across noted Philadelphia trainer Naazim Richardson’s face at the mention of the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Richardson’s fighter, former cruiserweight world champion Steve Cunningham, will be in the leadoff TV bout for the Showtime Pay-Pay-View telecast on the eight-fight card.

“How can you have an all-time great like Floyd facing someone who’s never fought a second of a professional boxing match?” Richardson asked. “One guy is a superstar in one sport, and McGregor is a [mixed martial arts] star, which is something completely different. They’re mixing apples and oranges. A lot of boxing people I know don’t see this as a fight at all, because if Floyd can do what he does against the best in the world, how long can someone like McGregor last? This is something the old-timers would just shake their heads over and walk away.”

It’s something over which many boxing people in general are shaking their heads, but like a prolonged gape at a roadside car crash, everyone has to stop and see -- at a cost of $99.99. That’s where this fight seems to be going, the wedge between boxing and the MMA world. Boxing fans have tepid interest in what can best be called “an event” or “spectacle.” The push is coming from MMA fans and general sports fans that casually know of Mayweather and are interested in seeing what happens when they meet. Despite the blaring “Buyer beware!” warnings, the truth is that McGregor isn’t a boxer.

“I think it’s going to be interesting event,” said Paulie Malignaggi, who will be calling the fight with the Showtime team of blow-by-blow man Mauro Ranallo and color analyst Al Bernstein. “Both guys have been terrific in their forms of fighting, and I think fighting has to be respected in any form or manner. Combat sports is not an easy way to make a living, so you have to respect it, but this is two forms of combat fighting under one particular set of rules.

“Boxing people, in general, understand the tactical perspective of boxing,” he added. “This is a novelty, and I don’t know if there are many boxing fans -- who are generally older than MMA fans -- crossing over and giving MMA fighters their due. A lot of boxing people simply don’t see this as a boxing fight, because you do have two different guys who are experienced in two different tactics of fighting.”

Malignaggi sparred with McGregor twice in Las Vegas. The first time was eight rounds on July 20; the second time was 12 rounds on Aug. 1. Malignaggi has openly said he was not in favor of the way McGregor was training.

“I wasn’t convinced the way they were doing things,” he said. “McGregor was working hard. I won’t dispute that. I won’t dispute his intensity. I disagree with some of the things that they were doing. Most of the instructions that I saw ... after he had a bad round, he came away a little too overconfident to my liking. His people were telling him he was doing well, regardless of what he was doing. I think a real trainer has to tell what you’re doing wrong and correct it. A real trainer has to have the balls to tell you, ‘This isn’t working. We need to do things this way and that way.’

“I saw McGregor was working hard,” Malignaggi added. “The intensity of a 40-year-old like Floyd, the intensity wears off. Conor has a lot of inner-intensity, and you see Floyd on Jimmy Kimmel 10 days before the fight and going around riding dune buggies, and that’s not like Floyd breaking camp like that. I think you need to keep that intensity throughout camp.”

One thing that the McGregor-Malignaggi videos showed is that “The Notorious” Irishman may not be able to keep it clean. He kept hitting “The Magic Man” with rabbit punches and kept holding down his head during their sparring sessions. Old-school fighters like Bernard Hopkins, Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko could get away with dubious tactics in subtle ways.

McGregor lost two points sparring with Malignaggi for rabbit punching and holding down the head. One of the most difficult things to learn about boxing is inside fighting. According to Malignaggi, McGregor fought primarily outside during sparring, which feeds right into Mayweather’s strength. Another misnomer many seem to anticipate is McGregor bum-rushing Mayweather in the hopes of landing the one big punch that will create trouble for “Money.” That approach may be wrong.

“Conor doesn’t underestimate Floyd; he overestimates himself,” Malignaggi said. “Conor needs some balls. That’s the bottom line. He’s a bully. He’s big when he’s winning. What’s going to happen when Floyd gets him in trouble, which he will? How will Conor react? McGregor showed a lack of character against me. It’s why I say he may find a way out of this. Forget the kicks and knees and things like that. I’ll tell you this, Conor is intense, but he’s also not the bravest guy.

“When things don’t go his way, you see a little fold in him,” he continued. “He’s a typical bully. Boxing fans don’t like bullies. They like people who fight back. I was nowhere in shape, and I wonder how brave he would have been if I was in any kind of shape. He’s only going to win with his explosiveness and intensity. He doesn’t hit as hard as everyone thinks he does. He thinks he hits harder than he does and he’s better than he is. It’s like when you’re a little kid and you think you’re Batman or Superman. He’s not.

“In boxing, when you can’t figure out who you are, you’re in trouble,” Malignaggi added. “This thing will become an assault. Floyd will take a round or two to figure Conor out. Conor will look to push Floyd’s head down, which you see on the video against me, to kill the action. Floyd will break him down to the body, and Conor will look for a way out. Conor is not afraid of anybody, but once he starts getting beat up, there will be a change there. Fighters know when another fighter is looking for a way out.”

Old-school boxing fans and even modern fight fans know it, too.