Conor McGregor sounded relaxed and prepared on a media conference call leading up to his massive boxing superfight against Floyd Mayweather on August 26th. A big piece of news that came out earlier in the day was the Nevada Athletic Commission approving a change in glove size from 10-ounces to 8-ounces. McGregor admitted he was happy with the change but was aware it gave certain advantages to both fighters.
“You’ve got pros and cons on both sides,” he said. “You’ve got both athletes asking for the request, and you’ve got me also coming up 8 ounces from what I’m used to. I know them in the media are like it’s 10, it’s 8. Hey, look what I fight with. I fight in 4-ounce gloves. Fingerless gloves. The knuckles are barely covered in what I’m used to. It benefits both in certain ways, so I’m very happy with it.”
“I was already up 6 ounces from 4 to 10, so it’s down a little bit from 10 to 8,” he said later. “How often he’s worn the gloves or any of that doesn’t really factor into – I didn’t even know that, for instance. So that didn’t factor into my thoughts at all. I do not care about his record, I do not care about his achievements, every fight is on a fight by fight basis so that’s how we approach it.”
The change did make him evolve his often creepily-accurate Mystic Mac prediction, previously set at a KO victory in four rounds.
“There’s no way in hell I’m not prepared to fight in the deepest of trenches in this contest. The training sessions and the practice have been hell and back so we are prepared for every possible outcome. I believe now with the gloves at 8 ounces I don’t believe he makes it out of the second round.
“Part of me is hoping maybe he can last so the word of ‘Oh, a lucky puncher’ — which I’ve been labeled with before, even though I have multiple under one minute KOs on my record — so part of me wants to show some skill and dismantle him that way. But I do not see him absorbing the blows in the first two rounds. But we are ready for absolutely any scenario. I’m ready to go to war for the full 12 rounds, and I’m ready to put him away in the first 10 seconds.”
With the contest coming up fast, McGregor sounds ready to shock the world. Whether he’s got the ability to back up that talk is something we’ll only learn the night of August 26th.
