For all the showmanship and spectacle surrounding the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight, it’s still a very real boxing match with very real physical repercussions for both combatants. Traumatic brain injuries happen during 12 round fights and while Floyd Mayweather has made a career of avoiding damage in the ring, no one knows what to expect from Conor McGregor. Given his 0-0 standing in boxing, he could very well be in for a protracted one sided beating.
Former light welterweight boxing champ Amir Khan voiced his concern surrounding the fight on a special edition of the MMA Hour.
“Looking at it as a fight, I just think that Mayweather is going to school him,” Khan said. “After two rounds Mayweather is going to know exactly what McGregor is doing in the fight and he’s going to clean him. … Conor is the younger fighter. He’s a young champion. He can go back to MMA and have a couple of big fights. He should not really show too much balls in this fight. If he starts to get a beating, step out, man, because there’s always another day. Mayweather’s a great fighter and you have to respect that.”
“He needs to think about himself in this fight because if he gets seriously injured, he might not be the same fighter ever again. He might never fight again.”
Mayweather himself implied he was going to tune McGregor up badly, declaring at the weigh-ins that it would be Conor’s last fight ever. And the more hardcore MMA fans know how serious boxing can be. Just two months ago former UFC heavyweight Tim Hague died from brain trauma taken during a boxing bout.
So enjoy the Mayweather vs. McGregor circus, but don’t forget the fight itself is serious business. We all want Saturday’s main event to be a hard fought and action packed bout, I’m also hoping both fighters make it out the other side without serious injury.
