By: Sean Crose
“Bums all of them ‘experts,'” UFC and (technically, at least) boxing star Conor McGregor posted on Instagram Sunday. “Listen to none of them.” In a long comment that accompanied a photo of himself landing cleanly on Floyd Mayweather in their 2017 novelty bout, the man who goes by the nickname “Notorious” made it clear he feels he could have beaten Mayweather that night. “Really I should have just sat right thru that shot and took his head off and fuck the distance,” he wrote. “If it didn’t work out just give him a good boot into the neck and get DQ’d and fined and who’d give a fuck. “
McGregor then went on to lamenting that he followed the rules of boxing in the Mayweather fight. “I’m upset I fully followed the rules for that fight to be honest,” he claimed. “Floyd deserved a volley at the least. A shoulder even, break the face.” As for his supposed fight with Manny Pacquiao in the next few months, McGregor was somewhat noncommittal on his willingness to abide by the rules. “Manny not so much tho, I don’t think,” he claimed, “but I will see how the build up goes and wait to hear what bitter old Freddie Roach has to say and then make a decision.”
For his own part, “bitter old Freddie Roach” isn’t afraid of making digs of his own. “If this is true,” Roach tweeted in response to McGregor’s announcement last week that he would box again,”@MannyPacquiao will have an easier time with you @TheNotoriousMMA than when he fought @HitmanHatton.” McGregor boasted that he really doesn’t need to either box or to obey the rules should he choose to. “My Whiskeys at half a b and climbing,” he said on the Instagram post. “I could take a fine. I’d rather fight MMA anyway not sure why I’ve been held back like this, it’s borderline criminal at this stage”
There are many fans of both boxing and the UFC who would undoubtedly also rather see McGregor fight MMA. This, however, appears to be the state of things. UFC fighters are extremely popular in America, but don’t make near the money for fighting that the most popular boxers do. Boxing’s top stars, on the other hand, see an easy and lucrative payday facing off against the likes of the wily McGregor, who they view as easy pickings in the ring. As McGregor himself might say: “It is what it is.”