Why Conor McGregor can’t just kick the hell out of Floyd Mayweather
McGregor would lose the bout and lots of money.
In Conor McGregor’s day job, he can bludgeon his opponent in any number of ways. The UFC outlaws certain savage moves, like biting, fish-hooking, groin shots, and eye-gouging, but fighters mostly have the run of their imaginations. Kicking and elbowing are as much a part of the UFC as tackling is a part of football.
On Saturday, McGregor’s not doing his day job. He’s boxing against 49-0 Floyd Mayweather, one of the best boxers who’s ever lived. Mayweather has, obviously, never been knocked out in his career. And McGregor has never boxed anybody competitively. That’s led more than a few people to thoughts like these, joking or not:
Saturday night mcgregor gonna come flying out of his corner and deliver a spinning kick asap to floyds bald head then t bag him and walk off
— luke (@crackingpIur) August 24, 2017
I'm not into boxing or mma but I bet mcgregor will kick mayweather ont head if he is getting pumped
— andrew cooper (@bigcoops5) August 24, 2017
“I want to see Conor McGregor round-house kick Mayweather’s head into the sun,” writes SB Nation’s Matt Ufford, though not for the same reasons some might want to see that. Whether it’s curiosity or just desire, there’s definitely a sentiment out there that McGregor might — or should — roundhouse-kick Mayweather in the head.
No, McGregor can’t actually kick Mayweather. Or elbow him, or whatever.
That’s actually not quite true: McGregor could kick Mayweather, just like he could bring a chainsaw into the ring and try to grind him up into pieces and eat him. (Talk about a technical knockout, am I right?) But it’s not going to happen, for a few reasons.
If McGregor wants to win the fight and not get sued for an ungodly amount of money, he’s not pulling any MMA moves against Mayweather. UFC president Dana White, a McGregor adviser and promoter, says he’s contractually prohibited.
“You all know how much Conor likes money,” White told reporters. “Conor would depart with a whole lot of money if that ever happened.”
Because the fight contracts aren’t public and we don’t know how many people will pay to see it, we don’t know what McGregor will make on this fight. It’s definitely going to be tens of millions of dollars, though, and it might push $100 million.
McGregor doesn’t want to jeopardize that. Plus, he’d surely be disqualified. This is a boxing match fought under the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s boxing rules. Those rules don’t allow mixed martial artistry. They allow boxing, and that’s all.