By: Jesse Donathan
Conor McGregor needs a big win and he needs one now. At stake, a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and another multimillion-dollar payday. According to a May 24, 2019 bloodyelbow.com article titled, “Conor McGregor insists he’d beat Floyd Mayweather in rematch: I whooped him ‘in the early rounds’,” author Mookie Alexander writes that, “It’s been nearly two full years since former UFC champion Conor McGregor stepped into the boxing ring to take on Floyd Mayweather in one of the richest fights in history.”
According to Alexander, it was a moral victory for McGregor, if such a thing exists, because prior to stepping in with arguably one of the best to ever lace them up in Floyd Mayweather Jr., McGregor had never fought in a professional boxing contest before.
“I was whooping him in the early rounds,” writes Bloodyelbow.com on McGregor’s initial assessments of breaking the ice with Mayweather. “I actually went back to my corner after the first round and said ‘this is easy’. I literally said that to my corner man.”
While Conor was busy playing checkers, Floyd was playing chess. Speaking to FightHype.com, cbssports.com quoted the great Mayweather as stating, “You know I carried McGregor. You know I made it look good for y’all,” writes author Brian Campbell in his December 5, 2017 article titled, “Floyd Mayweather admits to ‘carrying’ Conor McGregor during De La Hoya rant.”
According to Campbell, “there was a lingering feeling from some in the aftermath that the fight, pairing the greatest boxer of his era against a boxing novice, may not have been completely on the up and up.”
The cbssports.com boxing analyst would go on to write that, “At the very least, many wondered whether the 40-year-old Mayweather carried McGregor in the early rounds before switching gears and finishing him late. “
In other words, Mayweather employed a rope-a-dope strategy to lure McGregor into tiring himself out early on and ultimately drew the Irishmen into his tangled web of deceit. And McGregor to this day is busy bragging about how he would fair against Mayweather in the early rounds of a rematch that few want to see; still too foolish or stubborn to see he was played like a fiddle by the boxing icon.
And why would he? Everyone but the general public knew what the end result of Mayweather vs. McGregor would ultimately turn out to be. The entire charade was little more than a revenue generating machine for everyone involved. McGregor had no chance; he was there to collect a check and laugh all the way to the bank. And by all accounts, that is exactly what he has did.
According to a September 8, 2017 NYPost.com article titled, “McGregor already blowing through his $130M payday,” author Stuart Adkins of The Sun writes, “The mixed-martial-arts superstar is clearly enjoying his reported $130 million payday.” Adkins would go on to note that McGregor was reportedly, “… emptying the tank partying in Ibiza after his first professional boxing match, which ended in valiant defeat in Las Vegas.”
Now, McGregor wants a rematch. The Irishmen claims he would beat Mayweather Jr. this time around, though after going approximately three years without winning a fight period, in boxing or mixed martial arts, nobody is buying what Conor McGregor is selling anymore. McGregor has been busy living up to his “Notorious” nickname instead of busy training for big fights. As BoxingInsider.com previously reported, McGregor has been accused of rape in Ireland and has had a string of legal issues since losing to Mayweather in 2017.
McGregor last competed in the cage in October of 2018, losing to UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov by submission in a failed bid to recapture UFC lightweight gold. It was a fight McGregor with McGregor’s fate already etched in stone.
Coming off a relatively long lay-off the inactive McGregor faced the undefeated Nurmagomedov destined to be taken down and beat on from post to post. Having proved very little on the mat previously besides a propensity to avoid it at all costs the formula on how to beat McGregor had been written long ago.
The only thing the fight did prove beyond McGregor’s infamous lack of ground acumen was the fact McGregor was willing to step into the cage with legitimate competition in a risky bid to put himself in a better position to lobby for a rematch with the boxing great. McGregor had his opportunity to rematch Mayweather served to him on a silver platter and he let it slip right through his fingertips.
In short, Conor McGregor has lost his way. A former two division champion who made his name cherry picking opponents and fighting smaller men, McGregor now finds himself on the cusp of “Mayweather irrelevancy.” Reduced to begging for rematches against Mayweather and the current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, a loss for the UFC star against virtually anyone else would all but guarantee running it back against “Money” Mayweather would be little more than a waning image in the Irishmen’s rear-view mirror.
McGregor, like the great Bonnie Tyler before him, needs a hero. Someone just like Dmitri “The Lifeguard” Smoliakov; someone to throw the Irishmen a life preserver and save his career from certain major setback. It would be in McGregor’s best interest to go back to his roots in his next outing in hand picking big name, smaller opponents in an effort to maximize the former UFC two-division champions chances of success in what could be characterized as a must win scenario for the Irish mixed martial arts superstar.
On the line, another lucrative payday for both Mayweather and McGregor in a fight that at this time is an incredibly hard if not impossible sell given Conor’s current set of circumstances. McGregor needs another major scalp to add to his belt, and until then he finds himself in no man’s land where the prospect of facing legitimate competition and losing could be potentially monetarily disastrous. Conor McGregor needs a hero. And he’s gotta be strong, and he’s gotta be fast, and he’s gotta be ready to carry the fight. At least, that’s how I think the song goes?