Now that a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is largely considered an inevitability, the big question surrounding the fight is what exactly Conor can bring in order to stand a chance against a P4P great like Floyd. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto went right to the source to get some answers: McGregor’s longtime head coach, John Kavanagh.
Kavanagh had a lot of interesting things to say about their gameplan, and how they intend to throw out the conventional book on boxing Mayweather in favor of something different.
“I was asked very early on, ‘Are you going to bring in Freddie Roach? He’s the greatest boxing trainer in the world right now,'” Kavanagh said. “OK. I’m an evidence-based guy. I don’t make decision based on emotions. Has Freddie trained somebody to fight Mayweather before? Yes. And a southpaw. A hard-hitting southpaw! And the plan didn’t work. I don’t see a point in doing the exact same thing. … He did come up short in his approach to Mayweather. So, we can’t follow the same formula.”
“We’re not going to spend 10 to 12 years doing something one way and then, because it’s a boxing fight, change everything for three months and beat the best defensive boxer of all time. No. We’ve got to come at this with an MMA striking strategy. Of course, hands only, but maybe there are things we can do from an MMA perspective, which, if people study boxing from the early 20th century, those things were a bigger part in the boxing game than they are today. We’re bringing an old-school boxing approach.”
Kavanagh’s plan involves taking those other styles of fighting and bringing in a variety of high end boxers for McGregor to try and implement them on. It’s a novel and interesting approach, but pulling it off is going to be quite the feat. There’s a reason a lot of the old techniques ended up in the dustbin of boxing history, and that’s because fighters adapted to them and learned how to neutralize them. But wouldn’t it be something if McGregor and Kavanagh figure something out and give Floyd Mayweather a challenge?
That’s the kind of curious mindworm that is going to keep people locked into this fight, despite all logic telling us it’s going to be a complete blowout for Mayweather. It’s also why the PPV is going to sell in the millions.
