There is an air of inevitability among the MMA community that their guy, Conor McGregor, is going to lose the most high-profile fight of his career.
It would only make sense that Conor McGregor not only loses to Floyd Mayweather but suffers the mother of all embarrassments on August 26.
On paper, the undefeated prizefighter has every conceivable advantage over the world's most famous debutant. There are 49 individual pieces of evidence to support the theory that Mayweather makes very light work of the acerbic-tongued Irishman.
The war will take place on Money's battleground, using his ruleset in the fistic art form he has dedicated his life to the Sisyphean pursuit of achieving perfection in. Although the old adage of nobody being perfect rings true, when it comes to pugilism, Mayweather is about as close to flawless as you're going to get.
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It's not just Mayweather's spotless record that's so remarkable, nor is it just the calibre of opponent he has beaten, but it's the manner in which he has won every single contest.
Fighters who have spent a lifetime mastering the art of punching people cannot land anything of any significance against him. Technical boxers miss consistently, knockout artists whiff air and the world's elite are made to look very ordinary.
So how could a blow-in like McGregor be so arrogant to believe that he's going to show something that the cream of the boxing crop couldn't?
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A lot of the boxing cognoscenti seem genuinely offended that this charismatic showman is being allowed to do this. Some of them are talking about this fight like it has already happened, with McGregor receiving the one-sided ass-whooping that everyone expects.
As John Kavanagh explained on Monday's
MMA Hour, McGregor has always been one to flourish in this type of spotlight. Whether this is the product of dangerous levels of delusion or a precursor to proving the incredible power of self-belief, it's undeniable that the SBG head coach is telling the truth.
"I’m really seeing that spirit lit up in the team. It’s always there, but for whatever reason, because we’re being laughed at, because we’re being mocked, it’s making us even stronger.”
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All logic dictates that he's going to lose, badly. However, McGregor isn't a creature that abides by the laws of logic.
The reason behind this irrational belief in McGregor's ability against Floyd 'fucking' Mayweather is that we've all seen him do the impossible before.
We all watched him render Jose Aldo unconscious in 13 seconds. We all had to pick our jaws up off the floor after he reduced Eddie Alvarez's granite chin to rubble. We've seen him go from the Facebook Prelims in a European Fight Night to headlining the most lucrative PPVs in MMA history.
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McGregor warned everyone of the impending takeover when he first broke into the UFC, but no one envisaged it on happening on such a staggering scale in such a short timeframe. His unconventionality aided him in his ascent to the zenith.
No fighter immediately jumps up a weight division after winning a UFC belt. No one agrees to move up another weight class to ensure an asterisk doesn't get added when they exact revenge for their toughest loss. Nor is following up winning a historic second UFC belt by calling out one of the greatest boxers ever considered the norm.
That being said, no fighter has been able to solve the Mayweather enigma either. But, whatever McGregor has planned to take on that improbable task, you can guarantee it will be unconventional.
Does that mean we are backing 'The Notorious' to win? Hell no! However, it's hard to shake that expectation that he's going to show us something special.
