Conor McGregor has revealed he’s ready to put on the boxing gloves once again to take on Floyd Mayweather, and this time he says ‘I know I would win’.
If we cast our minds back to 2017, we’ll remember McGregor said the same thing in the build up to his initial fight with Mayweather. But, unfortunately for the retired UFC fighter, it all got too much in the 10th round when the referee was forced to stop the match.
Now, two years on, McGregor says he’s confident he’s got what it takes to give Mayweather his first professional loss.
Speaking on Saturday’s episode of the Tony Robbins Podcast, he said:
I would like to rematch him under boxing rules, again. And I believe I would win.
Actually, there I go again with that fake humbleness. I know I would win.
Looking back, McGregor doesn’t see his 2017 fight as being Mayweather’s usual cat-and-mouse game he’s so famous for, and actually believes he was winning the match in earlier rounds.
He said:
When I went into the fight in the early rounds I was whooping him in the early rounds. I went back to my corner after the first round and I said, ‘This is easy!’
Instead, he believes Mayweather switched his technique mid-way through the fight, to a style he’s never used before. McGregor also believes it was his aggression in the first half that forced Floyd to change his style.
He said:
He had to switch up his style, and you’ve got to respect that, he switched to the Mexican boxing style.
The Mexican boxing style is where you put your elbows in tight and walk forward with heavy pressure. He never fought like that in his entire career.
He never fought like that in his entire career, but he was forced to fight that way because he was getting beaten.
The approach caught me off guard. I was not prepared for it, I was not used to it, and he walked me down and ended up getting the stoppage.
Now, McGregor has re-joined the list of fighters hoping to coax semi-retired Mayweather back into the ring, alongside the likes of Manny Pacquiao, who frequently talks of his desire to avenge his final loss against Mayweather.
Could he be tempted? Well, considering he’s reported to have made $275 million out of his fight against McGregor, we’d never say never.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.