Few serious people are willing to predict Conor McGregor may win in his boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather. But one thing they acknowledge is his best chance comes from turning the bout into a total scrap. Doing that involves a certain disrespect for the rules of boxing, something he might get away with considering the notoriously hands-off Robert Byrd was selected as the referee for their fight.
On a media conference call, Mayweather was asked whether he was concerned with the choice of refs and the possibility of a dirty fight, especially because of the people in McGregor’s camp getting him ready to enter the ring.
“He had [boxing referee] Joe Cortez in his training camp, which is a great thing,” Mayweather said. “Even though he had Joe Cortez in his training camp, I still saw him doing, being extremely dirty. But my job is not to worry about the referee. My job is to go out there and fight, and let the referee do his job.”
Mayweather has another good reason not to worry about Conor going completely MMA on him. In his recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the pound for pound boxing legend revealed the fine should McGregor get disqualified in their bout.
“That’s a fine. That’s a huge fine,” Mayweather said. “I don’t think he would want to lose 90 percent, or more, of his money.”
So don’t expect McGregor to pull out a head kick late in the fight if things aren’t going his way. It would be the most expensive kick ever thrown in combat sports history.
