As a big money fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather continues to evolve from a fantasy to potential reality, more and more figures close to the two fighters are weighing in on how it would go. Now McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh is adding his two cents to the discussion, and surprisingly enough, he thinks training for a Mayweather boxing match would be easier than the average MMA fight.
“So in a weird way, you’re getting prepared to fight one of the best boxers there’s ever been,” he told the Daily Star. “But in another way, it would actually almost feel like a break for us because we wouldn’t have to keep up the other skill sets. In mixed martial arts your trying to work on seven or eight different skill sets. Whereas in boxing, it’s one … it’s just boxing. It’d almost be like a break to only have to work on one and not work on everything.”
“To be honest, Ireland has a great boxing tradition and we have a great relationship with some of the pro boxing gyms in Ireland. Steve Conlan is a friend of the gym, he’s in and out of the gym. And his brother, Pascal Conlan, runs a gym close by that Conor sometimes goes to spar in.”
McGregor also started his martial arts training out with boxing, so he’s no stranger to the sweet science. That being said, the world rightly assumes the gap between Conor’s boxing skills and the boxing skills of an all time great like Floyd Mayweather are probably light years apart. McGregor would like to convince us that’s not the case, and he has used his striking skills to prove his doubters wrong in the cage every time he’s competed.
But let’s be honest here: if a fight ever does come together, it’s mainly because of money, not because it’s a legitimate athletic endeavor for both fighters. Not that it’d stop us from watching, of course.