On August 26 – now less than a week away – UFC lightweight champ and verifiable MMA superstar Conor McGregor will step into the boxing ring to battle undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. Given that McGregor has never boxed professionally, he is being given little chance of success against the 49-0 defensive specialist Mayweather. Most pundits expect him to lose. The interesting thing is that McGregor would probably defeat Mayweather inside a minute if he were allowed to use his MMA arsenal – kicks, knees, elbows, takedowns, submissions, etc.
Doing so, of course, would earn McGregor a massive lawsuit – perhaps as high as $90 million. Surprisingly, however, McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh recently teased that McGregor might rely on his grappling opposite the undefeated pugilist. Kavanagh made this surprising comment in a Saturday Instagram post, which showed McGregor locking up an armbar on friend and training partner Artem Lobov.
“This technique is designed to rupture the major collateral ligaments in the elbow joint,” Kavanagh said of McGregor’s armbar. “It is powerful enough to cause an avulsion fracture. Luckily for [Floyd Mayweather] he does not have to worry about this next Saturday. Or does he?”
While McGregor has earned one of his 21 wins by way of submission, his real bread and butter is the knockout. McGregor has ended 18 of his fights with strikes, which is exactly why this battle with Mayweather has generated so much interest. Time will tell if Conor McGregor is able to shock the world with a fight-ending punch on Saturday.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/20/2017.