Let’s Revisit The Time Conor McGregor Tried To Spar With A Professional Boxer

The more you know about boxing, the less of a chance you’re probably giving Conor McGregor in his now official 12 round boxing match against Floyd Mayweather, set to go down August 26th in Las Vegas. That’s no shade against McGregor … Mayweather has spent the last decade frustrating and outpointing challengers to his pound for pound throne, and none of them came close to beating him either. So what chance does McGregor stand?

McGregor and his coaches are coming in with high confidence though, and a gameplan that involves throwing out the conventional strategy used to fight Mayweather and delving into boxing history for a different, more rough house style of fighting. But to pull it off he’ll need the skills to execute against a championship level boxer, and there’s reasons to doubt he has that.

Back in the summer of 2016, McGregor brought in former IBO welterweight champion Chris van Heerden to help him prepare for his rematch with Nate Diaz. The two had a falling out over footage McGregor released which seemed to show him getting the better of van Heerden. Chris put out his own footage showing the opposite and now he’s re-sharing that to the world following the announcement of Mayweather vs. McGregor.

“People telling me Mayweather will have his hands full trying to land on McGregor – STOP IT!” he wrote. “I respect McGregor BUT I ain’t Floyd and I landed.”

He certainly does in the video above, catching McGregor with endless counters and quick jabs. But the true question surrounding the fight isn’t if Floyd can hit Conor … it’s if Conor can hit Floyd. Floyd has built his 49-0 record off his astounding speed and reflexes, using them to build up a nearly impenetrable defense that has stymied some of the greatest boxers of our time.

That’s part of the reason why he’s such a controversial figure amongst casual fans, though. While boxing aficionados watch his shoulder rolls and perfect distance and see mastery, the casuals just see this damn dude dancing around playing patty cake on the outside for another judge’s decision. We paid how much money for this? Argh! Never again! Oooh, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao? Shut up and take my money! Argh! Never again!

You get the idea. The whole hook on this fight revolves around McGregor walking through punches and managing to get his mitt on Mayweather’s jaw. That’s no secret. That’s the selling point. Even Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe made it clear during the big media call following the fight announcement.

“A guy with that kind of power, he can nick you and you’ll be buzzed,” he said. “There’s been a few times in fights in Floyd’s career that he might have been buzzed in a fight, but nobody never knew. And there’s been a couple times he’s been buzzed in a fight. So one thing about Conor McGregor we do know is that you have to pay him very, very close attention, because when he touches people, they fall out.”