It’s important to listen to as many different perspectives on Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather as possible.
The boxing community has its own general view on Conor McGregor’s chances against Floyd Mayweather. For the most part, the MMA world holds a very different opinion. Perhaps the most qualified to give their perspective on the diamond-encrusted panty night are the athletes who’ve reached the summit of multiple combat sports disciplines.
McGregor is an unusual case in that he’s jumping right into the deep end of a new realm from the get-go, but he will take confidence from the knowledge that other fighters have switched disciplines with overwhelming success.
Holly Holm, who was a world champion in both boxing and MMA, is giving ‘the Notorious’ a real shot at upsetting the odds, as is former kickboxing and MMA world champion Alistair Overeem.
DING DING! Round One! Tag a mate who thinks Conor McGregor will beat Floyd Mayweather. pic.twitter.com/TyjWpswQLv
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) June 17, 2017
A year after winning the inaugural Strikeforce heavyweight championship, Overeem brutally knocked out Badr Hari, one of the greatest kickboxers on the planet. Overeem was 2-2 in pro kickboxing going into that fight. In 2010, he won the K-1 2010 World Grand Prix and the DREAM heavyweight title. So he knows what it takes to make a successful crossover.
As he told Sirius XM’s Luke Thomas at the UFC 213 media day, he believes McGregor has the requisite mettle too.
“I could see him be able to make the crossover successfully. He has the reach, he has the height advantage, nobody really knows what he’s going to do. I think it’s going to be a great hype, a great lead-up to the fight, but you never know, it could go either way.”
He'd get amazing odds on that, that's for sure https://t.co/IFRmzEIoqP
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) July 11, 2017
Overeem believes that McGregor is actually in a good position to transition to boxing because of he has reached the zenith of MMA. As he sees it, becoming a world champion MMA fighter requires the ability to analyse and learn techniques from traditional combat sports and this penchant for problem-solving could prove very useful against arguably the greatest defensive boxer ever.
“MMA is very complex. If you’re not clever, you can’t do it because there’s too many factors involved. You have to put these arts together. One art is one thing, all these arts together is complex. I believe that Conor McGregor is very intelligent. He has an extremely high fight IQ. He’s able to study and dissect and that will come in handy going into this fight.
“We as MMA fighters are able to dissect other sports because we have to do it for our own sport. I think that Floyd Mayweather is obviously an expert at dissecting, but so is Conor, so it’s going to be really good to see the dynamic and of course there’s the mental warfare thing which is separate, but the technical side is going to be very interesting to see as well.”
Check out the full interview in the video embedded below.
