The Press Box - 'Boxing Podcast'–Mayweather-McGregor Superfight Edition (Ep. 321)

Episode Date: June 15, 2017

The Ringer staff comes together to examine the upcoming "The Notorious" Conor McGregor–Floyd "Money" Mayweather fight. First, David Shoemaker and Chuck Mindenhall discuss whether or not we should be excited about this match (0:22). Later, Shoemaker is joined by Micah Peters and Sam Schube, who ask the question, "Can McGregor actually contend with Mayweather in a boxing match?" (27:08). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome to Channel 33 and our first official, unofficial, Mayweather McGregor Boxing Super Fight podcast. I'm David Shoemaker. I'm here. We got some other ringer staffers coming up later, but right now I have the living legend Chuck Mindenhall on the phone. How you doing, Chuck?

I'd be talking about this thing about it for years here. Chuck, you write a lot about UFC for us. Hopefully have a piece on this fight coming up soon. You write mostly for MMA fighting and I've already covered this piece. I mean, covered this fight. It's no surprise to anybody listening to this that MMA fighting as well as every other internet website has gone wall to wall on this since it was announced yesterday. Is Floyd Mayweather the greatest pound for pound boxer of all time versus a dominant MMA fighter

a dominant stand-up MMA fighter who has never competed in a professional boxing match of any sort. Is this a fight that we should be excited about to the degree that we are? It's really just because these guys are, and then you get this guy

who's from Ireland, probably all the way back, I would say in 2014, which is soical that you didn't really want to entertain it, and I've been, you know, I've been asked about it, no, it won't. When you're dealing with the UFC, the way that they've handled their, and I mean, you could look at it for all the people who just know the names and they know that these two crazy guys are going to finally meet

in a... Well, on the one hand, I totally agree with you. My buddy Brian Campbell came out of the gate fast with a piece on CBS about how this was... This is all about money for McGregor. I mean, for Mayweather, I'm sure it's the same for McGregor, too.

I agree. I thought it would never happen. You and I have talked about this on and off for the past six months, and it just seemed like the hype of it potentially has happening was where the real value was for both fighters, right? I mean, that it was just, I mean, even if one side was going to, was taking it seriously, it really felt like, you know, I was, I was, I was so sure that kind of McGregor was going to, you know, try to push for seven ounce gloves or

just something that Mayweather would say no to, you know, that there would just be some deliberate sticking point that would keep this from happening. Um, but now people are saying a hundred, like, you know, that they could make a hundred million dollars each or more. You know, I mean, it's it's the money is really i mean the money and and the hype the celebrity that's going to attend it or really what matters here um what you you you have uh paid a lot of attention to both of these fighters and you know we we've we've talked back and forth about uh kind of crossover fighters both in the octagon and the boxing ring um over the years what is there any way that this is a good fight i'm not trying to detract from it because let me say up top

I think that the ring entrances are going to be the most exciting 10 minutes of my adult life. I think it's going to be amazing. When it gets in the ring, it's another story. I mean, what is the, I really enjoyed your piece because you gave some hope to the McGregor fans out there. What do you think the case for Connor is? Well, you know, the truth of the matter is that Floyd is 40 years old, man. I mean, it's one of those things you think, we have, but he's, He was still competing at the top of his game when he last appeared,

which wasn't all that. I think he probably will not be – he probably will not look too different from the version we've seen basically a difference. I think that the unique thing about MMMA, who has a little bit of a reach advantage and he has 12 years on him, you could look if he just gives him some different things that, you know, typical boxers wouldn't – that maybe he would make a punch count. I think that that's really his – you know, these guys –

seeing these guys finally do this very surreal thing. I do think that it's too good, man. You've seen him against Eddie Alvarez. He just carved him up. He carved him up on the feet. And Eddie Alvarez is a pretty good stand-up. You know, Markup Nate Diaz. But he thinks that he is one of the best things because his owner.

Yeah, I mean, you're talking about guys who have a little bit of boxing background. I'm sure you saw this tweet from Chris Van Heardin today, or was it yesterday, where he had a little video of himself sparring with Connor. and he was just kind of picking him apart, you know, in just a little friendly sparring match. And it really looked like Connor was, I mean, Connor was still, if not literally, he was figuratively in the MMA stance, right?

He was just sort of like absorbing these shots and waiting for a big blow that was never going to come because he's not used to guys defending the way that boxers defend. Right. And presumably that's something one can work on. I think that it's just a, it's, It's just impossible to wrap your mind around how this transition would work for a pro fighter like him. It'd be one thing if he was fighting just a different caliber of boxer,

making the switch over. Probably, in my mind, could be the biggest fight in terms of gait, and to have that unless it's Floyd Mayweather. You know, what he's built in the... Fighting a lesser boxer, it would be interesting, I think, to see how he would go against it. Against the guy's 49. those fights, and it's just so hard to hit.

When you put all those factors together, it just seems, it seems crazy. It seems audacious from, obviously he's going to cash in huge, but he stands to be humiliated in a fight. Like a couple of, you know, boxing, you know, some of these guys who go into M.A., they have a boxing back, because you'd have something more to draw from. Yeah, I mean, Chris Mannix wrote a piece yesterday, too, which relates to what you were just saying. He has a great line where he says, why make the fight?

Because there's a sucker born every minute, and come August. 26th. Come August 26th, there will be millions of them. I mean, it really does, it's a really interesting, it casts an interesting spotlight on the careers that both of these fighters have had. I was texting with somebody last night and comparing it to pro wrestling, which is, of course, my frame of reference for everything. But I mean, you have Mayweather who, I mean, he gets knocked for not, I mean, for fighting a bunch of like potatoes there was career. He's fought a lot of really high caliber fighters, he's just better than all of them. But there's, but he did, but he has had some fights that were a little bit sketchy.

And I was joking that he sort of perfected the like the headliner squash match in boxing. Connor, Connor on the other hand has sort of like dismantled the, you know, the kind of classical aspects of of MMA just in the fact that he like has no regard for weight classes. He prefers to like, you know, settle blood feuds instead of actually just like racking up wins. And whereas normal fighters, you know, the goal is to get to the top and then and then the next goal is to stay there. And MMA, there's nothing harder than staying on top, right? I mean, getting there is almost easy

compared to it. Absolutely. But it does cast an interesting light on this because both of these guys, I mean, it does seem like they both built their careers sort of, you know, around this sort of hype that dismantles the sport that they're a part of, and so this is sort of perfect

in a way. Yeah, yeah, I can see all of that. It's so interesting from the, there's a little bit of anything. Obviously, boxing has the long history. You know, they took the sport into something else into an art form. They took it to other places. And I feel like it's funny because

M.MA hasn't really had that. You know, it's trying to catch up the boxing. So to even have a guy of this caliber be able to meet somebody of, you know, to go meet somebody like Floyd Mayweather who's doing a sexually lifting the... There's a lot of things. I mentioned he settles these blood feuds and things.

He's also a guy who, it made no sense for him to rematch Nate Diaz. outside of the money realm and all that stuff. He was trying to fight 155 pounds, but he only went to 170 because that's how the first one went. So he's in avenging that loss. And he wants to give all the benefits to the other guy. And I feel like that's what we're seeing 100% by him doing this in a boxing, like you said, not negotiating any kind of changes to anything. He just basically, and he's even doing, I think I heard it from Floyd's normal weight. So it's all towards Floyd, and that's just, that's free, you know. You make an interesting point about the kind

of history of boxing writing, having sort of, you know, carried the sport or lifted the sport to another level. I thought about that a lot, you know, I mean, for as long as I've been, as long as I've been writing, that UFC, I mean, you've done some amazing writing for us about UFC, but for the, first, you know, decade of UFC's significance, there weren't people doing that to the same degree that there were boxing writers back in the day. And I think it's mostly because UFC was doing it for themselves. Like I remember sitting in a sports bar watching a promo for a promo package for Kane Velasquez thinking like this is the piece that Norman R. Mailer would have written. You know, I mean, they do their own myth making in-house and that's kind of part of their

part of their corporate structure. But then you have someone like Connor McGregor come out of nowhere and he, I mean, the phrase gets thrown around, but he transcended the sport, you know? I mean, he's, he's bigger than, he's more than their in-house PR department can handle. And so, um, You know, you end up with boxing in a sort of perpetual state of decline. I mean, it's not, it's obviously still an enormous deal. And someone like Floyd Mayweather was, you know, just the icon of, you know, bigger than the sport for a long time himself. But it does sort of seem like they're crossing paths. The two sports are crossing paths.

And these are the two icons that have to battle for it. I just, at the end of the day, I mean, you know, there's going to be podcasts. There's going to be a million pieces written. This is all, starting, man. Yeah, no, this is all about the hype. You texted me yesterday that the chit's already off the hook, you know? Like, it was, like, it was immediate. People were just waiting for this great exhale of just the hype machine.

And, you know, every sports radio show is talking about it today. This is, this is just really enormous. it almost feels like the fight itself doesn't matter. Like, you know, because most, when you're talking about the fight game in general, you're really talking about the lead-up. You know, I feel like it's a expectation. Most times, though, it's most fun because leading up, you know, people, especially in a fight at this magnitude, people will just randomly talk about it.

They know that you cover the sport. They're going to want to talk to you, like people who don't pay attention, things like that had because you have both the boxing, you know, you're going to have the boxing world and the MMA world. man. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that came over to the UFC and fought Randy Couture. It was just one of those like, well, we're trying to prove a point that these guys, you know, like years old when he tried this. Like, of course he can't. It's just the stupid, and then you get this, you know, he's basically, keeps meeting. It's a, he puts one thing out there

and then he gets it. He does the next thing. He says it's going to be the first, the first guy, two titles, and he does that. He just basically keeps meeting his own, everybody's going to fight because we don't know the extent of it yet. One of those situations, man, but yeah, it should be it should be a lot of fun because you're going to get so many. Yeah. I do think that we'll look back on it and probably think it was silly.

People will take it to such a level, but... Yeah, I mean, I have so many points from what you said. You talked about the reactions from the fighters. I mean, there's been a lot of great roundups of Twitter reactions, and it was pretty striking that from the UFC fight, the UFC side, all the fighters and people involved with MMA were just sort of like, whoa, it's happening. And all the people on the boxing side were like, this is a fucking disgrace.

That's true. I mean, and part of that, it's just the sort of provincialism of boxing. You know, I mean, this is, I mean, if you go knock on the door of the, you know, the executive editor suite at Sports Illustrated or ESPN or anything like that, you'll find some old guard people who are just, who don't even want to acknowledge the existence of MMA, but hold boxing up as the, you know, as the highest form of athleticism. And a lot of that goes back to the great purple pros of the, you know, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. I mean, but yeah, I mean, you had a really great line in the piece that you wrote for MMA fighting,

which goes to what you were saying, where you say McGregor is the only fighter where the verdict's still out. And not just on whether he's, whether or not he's in collusion with the cosmos, but just how deeply. I mean, that's, I think that's right. That's exactly right. It's McGregor is the only fighter, the only MMA fighter for whom, enough question about his like his immortality exists, you know, that you could, that you could imagine this. But let's just get down to the brass tax before we, before I let you go. If McGregor, well, I don't even know if it's worth talking about. If he wins, this is,

this is one of the greatest moments in, in MMA history and maybe sports history. If he loses, does it affect his UFC career? Well, that's the question, man, and that's because he's had such career escalations, like he's put these dangling carrots and he's achieved them, basically, like he's been over the last three years and what happens afterward on a lot of levels. The biggest one being, after making a nine-digit payday, he's never going to get that time that he's had to basically.

And that's one of those strange things. I feel like he's structured, his mind is structured in such a way. He's got to outdo himself every time out. He mentally handle that if he loses. And, you know, if he loses, does he think, like, okay, now I'm going to go back to my realm? If he, like, loses in the sense of, like, I think it will go down where basically he's not effective, I think it's going to, it's going to hurt him on some level, man, because part, like what you just mentioned, part of his, you know, part of his whole thing is just the Mystic Max side of it, right?

Like, he's this guy who doesn't look. I mean, even in loss, even in the loss, it was just one of those weird things. He handled himself so well in the lost and ideas, and he said all the right things, but it goes away, and that will go, but I'm telling you right now, man, people are happily deluded to believe that he's like,

they want to believe that he's this guts, that's what'll take the blow is just his mystique. That we'll have to wait and see, but it would be interesting on a lot of levels just to see if he's, if he's the same guy. If he wins, I can't, I happen. I mean, I really don't know what happens,

There was a possible rematch, nothing like that. But it would be really interesting if he ever comes back to fighting at all or if he gives, you know, another Mayweather fight. I mean, who knows at that point? From everything we know about McGregor, you'd think that if he loses, even if he loses Handily, that he's going to wake up the next day obsessed with becoming a good enough boxer to beat Floyd Mayweather. You're right?

I mean, it's hard to imagine him losing and just being like, all right, let's let me go defend my UFC title next month. It's just not in his character. 100%. And unless, like, the best case scenario would be, maybe it's just a competitive fight, right? Maybe he knocks down Floyd, something like that, where there's just a moment where it almost,

well, then, if he was trying to sell himself, like, you know what, I want to, I have to do it again, I have to do it again, you could sell it. That, you know, the way that Floyd fights, it's just, it's not going to be conducive. Think that he'd be able to generate you, because your segue into how this is going to feel about, like, boxing, losing, you know, kind of what happens,

like, that he was hoping that he would come back. It's hard to imagine I mean on the Floyd side Like you know If he were to lose In some sense It would it would certainly Obviously damage Floyd's

Floyd's legacy I mean he's an undefeated fighter Up But at the same time You know Part of what The reason why we watch Combat Sports and boxing in particular

Is to see our Is to see legends built And then to see them destroyed Right I mean and so that That is guys part of the reason why why the gambling odds are not more in Mayweather's favor is because there's so many there's so many people placing bets on McGregor on the on the kind of blind

hope that he's going to pull this off it's just the excitement it's just the the the possibility of of being surprised of seeing uh you know a legend dismantled it's it's uh I mean it it really is the fight game distilled down to everything except the fight that's what I keep coming back to. Yeah, it's plus, I think he's like plus 800, which is crazy. And it's also not, too, that, you know, he, for, for any, any matchup, the whole way he's going to make, we just mentioned as an underdog, it's, it's, he's going to be a, it's, it's such a unique as the B side, but you've been around a long time. You've seen him kind of leading up to these fights with Diaz and Alvarez and stuff. Once he gets the micro, it's going to be a lot of fun. He's going

to sell the fight all on his own. Do you saw, did you see that he already posted a, wait, Yeah, no, this is what I love. First of all, I love, I thought that was a great, that was a wonderful tweet. That was a top-notch tweet. At the same time from like, you know, in McGregor's history, that was sort of weak sauce. You know, like if that's, obviously he's got a lot of time to hype the fight, but it's going to be interesting to see, it's going to be interesting to see what he does when like every moment he puts, he gets himself in front of a microphone is like five more million

dollars in his pocket and how he balances his public presence versus his training. I mean, I think that's actually, I mean, just a really interesting. financial equation too. Listen, I'm going to let you go. Is there anything that you're looking forward to that we haven't talked about yet? Are there any unexpected you have any unexpected takes on this fight?

Not really, man. I mean, it's one of those things you're just trying to wrap itself, but yourself and saying, I cannot change because we knew it was inevitable, but there's official that you're like, this is crazy, man. They're actually going to take a little time to process, but you know, once the guys start talking and getting that. I totally agree, man.

And I'm going to be right here for the whole thing. Thanks so much, Chuck Mendenhall. We'll talk to you again soon, man. Awesome, man. Thanks, brother. Okay, I am joined now by Ringer Writers Extraordinaire, Micah Peters, and Sam Shubi. How are you guys doing?

I'm doing okay. How about yourself? Feeling great, Dave. How are you? I know Shubi's excited. Shubi exploded. That's probably the wrong way to put it. Shubi's excitement exploded through Slack yesterday in the office.

Yeah, and then I took a couple laps around the office. I did my best Notre Dame mascot pose. I'm ready for this. We've been on the edge of our seats about the potential for this match happening for some time. It really seemed like it would never happen. I talked about this some with Chuck, but just the fact that it's actually, the distance between us talking about, oh, it's going to happen. Like when we started getting word a couple weeks ago,

it actually happening feels like, such a great distance. Well, we know how to measure the distance, right? Like, that distance is exactly $100 million. You know? Like, you can put an exact number on just how unlikely this fight was. And so for months, it was like, this is a ridiculous thing that will never happen. No one will do it. There's too much to lose, too little to gain. But then when the thing you can gain is $100 million, we're in. So let's do it. You said in your piece yesterday that you would fight Floyd Mayweather for $100 million. Happily. Micah, do you have an opinion on this?

You mean like, I have to go like and be on like world television where presumably all of my family and love one would be watching and for a hundred million dollars? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you can go buy a new country afterwards. I could buy my dignity back. You could move onto an island. It's very easy. If you're alive, I think that's the question.

You sent this clip around that Chris Vanhedron posted on Twitter of him sparring with McGregor. it's more than anything, more than a boxing match or a MMA fight, it reminded me of the previous like Twitter meme of Connor McGregor fighting the mountain from Game of Thrones Except Connor McGregor was in the aggressor's position in that one Because the mountain was like if I mess with this guy too much If I do anything, I'm probably going to like murder him

And then I'll be in jail and it'll be a problem I mean it felt like McGregor was just totally outmatched in the sparring match And certainly he can, you know, he has time to train. But the kind of meta question that I keep coming back to is, can an elite athlete with unlimited money and resources, and let's just say enough time to prepare, if he just picks one game plan, if he says the only way I win this match is to knock out Floyd in the first round,

is it possible for him to train well enough in this amount of time to get them? I mean, should we say this together at the same time? No. No. I mean, like, the thing is that, like, it's, it's a completely different sport. And I'm not, like, I'm confessing to not being an expert in either thing. Like, obviously just a casual observer. I have blown off Shuby probably three months in a row, like, going to spar, like, on the weekends. But the thing is that, like, and I said this in a piece that I guess we'll be up later after this podcast is up, was that McGregor boxes, you know, inverted commas, and Mayweather is a boxer. Like, I mean, there's... From the day he was born, yeah. I mean, this is the, I mean, it's such... His dad is a boxer.

His uncle is a boxer. He grew up in gyms. You know, he spent his life standing on two feet in a ring, not, you know, like, grappling on a mat. Yeah, and McGregor is one of the best stand-up fighters in MMA, but it's... That's cool. That's great for him. No, I know.

I'm really exciting. Yeah, I'm with you on this. It's just, I mean, I feel like to some extent, UFC, MMA and UFC in particular has been fighting so long and so hard for recognition, for people to give them respect that they almost do themselves a disservice because they talk about stand up fighting in the, in the octagon in boxing terms. You know, it's like they've been training with their boxing. Yeah, I mean, like, UFC is cross-disciplinary. The thing is that, like, you're learning, you know, the basics of boxing, but you're also, like, taking. jujitsu and very specific different types of like fighting styles that require using your opponent's strength against them and this that and the other thing but the thing is that like boxing is

they're different in so many specific ways like yeah and here's the thing for me connor mcgregor is a tremendous stand-up boxer as a mixed martial artist yep and he uses those boxing skills when the matchup calls for it right when like he feels that the other guy in the octagon is asking for it, you know, is asking for a real whoopin with a, you know, a right-hand lead or whatever. Floyd is the greatest defensive boxer maybe in the history of boxing. Oh, yeah. This is not a case where, like, styles make fights, where, you know, McGregor's style runs into Floyd's.

Like, this is a case where a guy who's never boxed professionally has to figure out how to box against, you know, the king of the shoulder slowers. I mean, in MMA, there's a lot of discussion. about like you know when McGregor gets in the octagon it's about his opponent's jaw i mean he's not going to get near mayweather's jaw right i mean that's the i mean he maybe but that's but i mean that's a big that's a question of itself just about every one of those left-handed like those left-handed straights that he throws are going to glance off of mayweather's shoulder like it's going to be almost exactly like and a lot of a lot of people have already drawn this comparison so

far like this morning maybe in the last 24 hours that it's going to be a lot like mohammed al fighting Antonio Inoki in 1976. Like where, you know, with the exception of, okay, so those of you that are listening, you'll probably know this, I recently had to, you know, like tunnel down into it. Yeah. But right after the thrill of Manila, Mohamed Ali was offered $6 million to fight this basically mixed martial artist in Japan named Antonio Anoki. And they adjusted the rules so that Anoki didn't have.

have to wear gloves, but if he wanted to kick, he had to have one knee on the mat. So he chased Muhammad Ali around the ranks, like, trying to sweet the leg for 15 rounds. Yeah. And it was the dumbest thing ever. It was terrible. There's some, I mean, there's some, there's some people, there's a theory that that actually affected Muhammad Ali to a great deal because he did have some, like, blood clot issues after being kicked in the leg a lot of so many times. But his career was sort of trending downward at that point anyway. Yeah, no, it's a really interesting point of comparison, but the biggest difference here is, like, McGregor can't go down on a knee and kick anybody. I mean, McGregor has to fight exclusively on Mayweather's terms. Well, I love the idea that

this is a question. You know, like, what's going to happen if Mayweather, you know, takes to the mat? Yeah, people are asking. Why are you asking that? They're boxing. All right. So, let's just take it fully into the realm of conspiracy theory. They've gone, they've been really loud. Dana White yesterday. It was really clear about, you know, there's no way this is going to be, you know, there are are the rules in place, people are asking if there's rules in place for in case Connor does some UFC, you know,

some MMA moves. But I mean, that would just be insane. But the thing that, the, the, the point of comparison that jumped into my head was Mr.

T versus Rowdy Roddy Piper at, uh, at WrestleMania 2, I believe. You're on there, chief. They,

no, they had a, they had a, they had a boxing match that was, it was billed as 10 rounds of boxing. And then in like the third round, Mr. T, I mean,

uh, Piper got frustrated and body slammed Mr. T. Right? And that was the best possible, so the best possible way to draw up this fight because no one actually wanted to see them fight. There was no way it was going to be interesting. Is it possible that they just went in and made this handshake agreement that McGregor was going to go off the script and slam him in like the fifth round and then they would both

look better for it? Okay, let's think about what is good about that being true. Let's start there. They get an instant rematch. Yeah. Right? They do it again. Sure.

After everyone's been paid and all the pay-per-views have been bought. So if they have a handshake deal that Floyd is not going to, you know, Sue McGregor's pants off for kicking him in the knees, sure, let's do it. That's great. You know, everyone gets paid twice. But I don't know. I feel like Dana White has been like way too polite in this whole process. This is like a very like muted, you know, oh no, we're going to let Showtime, you know,

bring in their guys and they're the boxing experts. this is a boxing match. I'm just, you know, happy to see Connor get a chance. All of the negotiations have been smooth, quote unquote. What is that about? I feel like maybe that's masking a little bit of, you know, bumpiness or some excitement or something we should be interested in. If the negotiations were so smooth, I'm confused as to why it took so long. I mean, I know that there's a lot of, like, you know, just like minor details that probably get worked out over a period of months as, you know, in any fight.

Well, I mean, what Mayweather basically started this May 2016. He started the rumors. He was the first guy who said, you know, people have been talking. Exactly. Many people are saying about, you know. Connor McGregor wants to fight me. You know, he was on fight height talking about Arturo Gotti. And he was just like, we should get this fight popping in June.

And then like, you know, well, I mean, I guess here we are. It's going to happen in August. But something about it feels incredibly off. I think that, I mean, I think the actual answer to my own, to the question I posed is that the Nevada Athletic Commission would just like have both men thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. Like it would be a real problem if they're. if there was any indication that anything like even noted straightforward legal body than the body athletic commission well maybe maybe just thrown into a ditch out back or something i mean mayweather may be big enough to defy them but i i find it hard to imagine that mcgregor is um i mean is there

what do you think the most exciting point between now and the fight is going to be is it starting with yesterday and ending with i said it before when i was talking to chag the ring entrances which i think might just be a supernova of that. That's the apex here. That is the best thing about this. I mean, Floyd's, you know, past accompaniment has been Justin Bieber in, like, various hats and sunglasses, Lil Wayne, not wearing a shirt. Yeah.

That will be terrific. Connor's just going to show up to, like, you know, shipping up to Boston or something. I mean, he, no. I mean, like, who I actually probably, like, Connor McGregor will probably walk into the ring with, like, Yo Gotti or something. In a fur coat. In a fur coat. Yes.

In August in Vegas. with sunglasses on inside. But I think that's it. I think the entrances are the moment where you're going to have the sort of like apex of interest and fun and excitement. And then you get in the ring

and setting aside for a moment the fact that this is, you know, a guy who boxes versus a guy who doesn't box. Yeah. Have you guys ever watched a Floyd Mayweather fight? Yes. Like these are not fun. You know, like from a purely like technical boxing perspective,

he is a clinician. It is incredible. He's an otherworldly talent. If what happens in the ring, I mean, what happens the ring has to matter some, obviously. Is there any chance, again, conspiracy theory? Is there a chance that Floyd toys with him and kind of drags the match out a little bit just for the sake of showmanship? Here's my hot take. Floyd doesn't have any choice but to go 12 rounds with him.

Floyd can't knock anybody out anymore. Floyd broke his hand in the ninth round against Bertot in his last fight. It's true. Wow. Fact check that. I don't know if he broke it, but Floyd hasn't knocked anybody out for a while. So I think it is not only a sort of like real need for Floyd to go the distance, but it also looks good for him if he can just, you know, toy with him for 12 rounds. I mean, like, also there's a tactical advantage to go in the full 12 rounds because Conn McGregor has not fought longer than five rounds.

Like, it may be fought over two, what, five times? I don't know. I don't have the numbers, but that sounds about right. Yeah. Oof, 12 rounds is going to be, that that's almost a bigger jump for McGregor than you. I mean, who knows if he's already at that level of endurance, but, I mean, that's a much bigger jump almost than learning how to box. I don't know, Shoeba.

You're the expert here. I'm no expert. I pretend to be no expert. Right before we started, we were talking about this. I mean, we know this fight is all about hype, right? I mean, it's going to be from now, like you, like we were saying, until the ring entrance. It is.

Everything is pro wrestling now. But Floyd is on TMZ today. The headline is Floyd Mayweather. Here's why McGregor, could beat me. Now, McGregor's been relatively muted in the past 24 hours. I mean, he did tweet out a great picture of Floyd Sr. And that was, you know, a nice opening shot. Jedina versus Luke Gossett. Yeah. But Floyd has been out there in several, I mean, in several venues talking about how he could lose this fight. There's no way to look at this other than it's

just the art of the hype, right? Extremely well-practiced hype, too. And I think the the venue is instructive. Floyd is not getting on the phone with a report at the New York Times. Floyd is not talking to, you know, a boxing reporter of note. Floyd is just speed-diling TMZ and saying, get at me, guys.

I'm worried I'm going to lose. I feel like I'm fat. And TMZ is like, sure, we will put that on the front page. So look, Floyd remains the canniest promoter in boxing, right? the shift toward the end of Floyd's career toward booking his own fights

and to paying his opponents out of his own pocket into paying the hot dog guys and taking a cut on every single one of those is brilliant. And, you know, a moment of sort of like tactical genius on his end. He's a businessman and also a horrible human being. So Floyd knows how to play this game

and he's invested in making this work for him. I guess what I'm interested, I don't know, maybe I've missed, it, but I haven't seen anybody just hot taking that McGregor is going to win, which I think is a real open lane that the ringer should investigate. The thing is that like, okay, so the, what people seem to keep bringing up is like, you know, Bayweather's had trouble with Southpaws in the past. Like Oscar De LaHoya said that, you know, like, um, Zab Judah gave him like gave him hell for whatever. And the thing is that like,

okay, but he hasn't lost. And those were actual boxers. Yeah. Like, um, I'm particularly interested, hot taking aside, with how kind of mainstream institutional media is going to handle this fight, right? I mean, ESPN, this feels like almost a more difficult, I mean, not to target ESPN in particular, but ESPN's done a lot of work with WWE in the past couple years, but this feels like more of a hurdle for them almost because WWE is sort of sidebar, right? And this is trying to take on this, this hype, this fight that's all about showmanship. It's not a legitimate boxing match. You know, they had Max Kellerman staring dead into the camera this morning saying McGregor will not land a single punch on Floyd. I think that that's a legitimate point of view.

And Max is the, you know, the best person to ask. I trust Max. I believe him. That's great TV today in June of 2017. It's like not super good on August 26th. Yeah. No, that makes sense. I mean, and I wonder if that sounds less and less interesting, the closer we get to the fight. Well, I think that like... You know, if you got to put Teddy Atlas in a closet over there, so he stopped saying McGregor's going to get destroyed on TV. Yeah, no, I think that's really... Because they do...

I mean, hyping it is in their interest, too. You know, I mean, I was watching Levitart this morning right before I came over, and he was just sort of in the midst of, like, a 15-minute performative sigh that was just like, oh, like, this is... You're all a bunch of marks if you think that any... That this matches anything at all. All right, so I have a question about that.

And I'm wondering how you feel about it, David. this idea that if you are a true boxing fan, you should be disappointed by this. You should be angry about it, that it makes a mockery of the sport. No, I mean, listen, I mean, if Floyd were in the prime of his career and this could be seen as like a waste of one of his fights

or a potential injury for him or, you know, a way to Mara's legacy, I mean, I guess I could see that argument. I mean, I'm going to keep bringing it back to pro wrestling, but you get to a certain point in age and fame in the pro wrestling industry where you only come back for super fights. It doesn't matter if it's like the best fight that people, like, you know, when the Undertaker comes back once a year,

all of the smart fans like me are like, oh, he's got to, we want him to fight Daniel Bryan or like our favorite, like, technical wrestler who only we really appreciate. Right. No, he's going to fight Roman Reigns. He's going to fight Triple H. He's going to fight the biggest names in the business so that we have these matches on tape to sell DVI. of for the next hundred years or whatever.

I mean, DVDs won't exist for 100 years, but, you know, the fight will carry on. I think that it's got to be, I mean, I don't understand, I mean, I understand the gut reaction that this is a travesty. I mean, like, it's asking you to be a little bit dumber than you are. Yeah. I mean, like, is, which is, you know, fine,

but at the same time, like, it's totally. It's great sometimes, man. It's great, exactly. Like, I mean, like, sometimes you're going to see, I mean, the expendables just because, John Conve-Vandam is in it. I don't like, whatever. It's not like it's the end of the world.

It's a thing that's going to happen. It's going to be entertaining probably for around. And if you had to sort of run Hollywood just on art house movies, it would fold. You know, like Keith Thurman is a great boxer. Triple G is incredible. Canela is a technician. These guys are awesome. All due respect, no one really cares, right?

Like, boxing is in a weird spot and best case scenario, more people are going to be watching now. Yeah, I totally agree. And there's going to be, I mean, the undercard on this fight could, I mean, again, like wrestling, it's like set aside the main event. It's what's number two and number three. Like, that's the future of the sport. Yeah, exactly.

And, you know, you get a chance to showcase those dudes. Yeah, I mean, it could be. Time for the world to meet Anthony Joshua, who already wants in on the card. A 6'7 heavyweight champ from the UK. I mean, as stoked as we got for Mayweather Pachiao, when Pachiao was a shell of his former self. Yeah, that was a mistake. Canelo we got really, I mean, I remember like how excited it was for Canello. That was just

like, you know, look, I remain extremely excited for Canello Triple G, you know, oh, of course. Three weeks after this fight. Yeah, no, no, it's going to be really good. I'm just saying that like what the match, I don't know what the match you wanted Floyd to come out of retirement to take is, if not, if not something like this. I mean, it's, it is, it's a gimmick,

it's a gimmick, you know, I mean, it's a, it's all about the hype, it's all about the showmanship. I was saying to Sean's Finacy that, that, you know, you can, you can look back at all these, you know, Ali, no, There's a lot of historical parallels. The first thing that comes to my mind is Chris Collins worth racing a horse. Because it's just like, this is just all about the spectacle.

I was going to say that, I think I was going to say that you're watching, like, Mayweather at this point in his career is, like, Jordan a wizard's jersey. But this is going to be, like, Jordan, like, waxing O.J. Mayo, like, at basketball camp, like, at age 50. Well, and here's the thing. Like, it could be Floyd versus Pauly Shore, you know, like on Fox at 8 p.m. in like celebrity boxing or whatever. Oh, yeah.

But it's Floyd against Connor McGregor. Like, that's fun. That's interesting. There are, like, things to argue about here. This is, like, a little closer to actual boxing than, you know, the dumb circus, I think it's being made out to be. Yeah. I mean, and certainly it's, I mean, they're framing the match as a legitimate boxing match.

I mean, it's going to be, for, no matter what happens between now and the bell, the way, if it happens after the bell, it will be a traditional boxing match. And if you're right, it's 12 rounds of boxing. I mean, that's great. And, you know, we will all have the privilege of shelling out upwards of $100 for it. What is the most that could possibly charge for this and get, and have you not, I mean, if they said $500, I mean, Sam Shoebe might just be forced, you know. No, absolutely not.

I will not pay $500 for it. But what is the average person? I mean, $100 is the benchmark now. I think it has to sit at $100, right? Because it was $100 for Mayweather Pac-Yau. This is, like, not as real of a fight. it is like I don't think it's as big as that one was and it's also fake yeah so I don't think you can go any higher I'm sure Dana White will try yeah man it'll it'll it'll be really interesting um all right in the

meantime we can pour a little out for uh Oscar de la Jolla and golden boy promotions who are licking their wounds by saying that actually you know fans think uh in terms of billing cycles on their cable bills so you know they they will buy both fights That's great. I don't even know how many subscriptions I'm paying right now. Yeah, when does Netflix get into boxing? Yeah, geez. I mean, it's got to be only a matter of time.

Netflix should have been doing this. How long is, is Mayweather going to, if Mayweather wins, he will retire again after the match, right? Presumably. I mean, boxers always retire in the ring because it's, I mean, it's why it's the hype game, because the moment, I mean, the next day, no one cares about the fight or the fighters anymore.

Listen, man, I go in box on Saturdays, and every Saturday afternoon I retire from boxing. All right. I think that's the right place to end this. Thank you guys. Any parting shots before we get out of here? None. I mean, I just, and again, it's strange that we have to keep coming back to this,

but McGregor is not a boxer. Look, here's the thing, though. I'm really excited. I'm going to try as hard as I can to talk myself into Connor. That's it. That's the game. I think that's where I'm at. That's what I want.

I mean, you know, unproven, untested. He's a mysterious quantity. He's an unknown, unknown. Let's do it. Things we don't know, we don't know. All right, you heard it here first. Conrad Greger is going to win. Yeah, knockout in the second round.

That's right. I'm right there with you, with fingers crossed. Okay, guys, thanks so much for coming out. Thank you all for listening. We'll see you back here on Channel 33 soon. Thanks, David.