Although Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather have completed their four press conferences before their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on August 26th, the promotional tour continues. On Thursday, UFC president Dana White went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to talk about “the biggest fight in combat sports history” and the wild press tour that came to its conclusion last week.
First and foremost, White evaluated McGregor’s chances against Mayweather. White has already answered that question several times this month, but he doubled down on the idea that McGregor only needs one of his punches to connect for him to pull off the upset. White also said that Mayweather has a history of struggling against left-handed fighters, which literally plays into McGregor’s hands.
“The confidence [McGregor] has in himself is unbelievable,” UFC President marvels to Jimmy Kimmel
“Listen, when you put two people [together] anywhere – here, anywhere – and they start throwing punches, anything is possible. Floyd Mayweather is going to be 41 years old this year. If there is a kink in that armor, it has been with southpaws,” White told Jimmy Kimmel. “Conor McGregor is a southpaw. He is 28 years old and he hits like a truck. He has got 12 rounds to land that punch. When he hits people, they go. And if he hits Floyd, I think he will hurt him. And when he hurts people, he puts them away.”
White was then asked how long Mayweather would last if he stepped into an Octagon with McGregor: “Three seconds,” he said. “That thing would be over real quick.”
“The thing is that throwing punches is a part of what we do in the UFC, and Conor McGregor can throw some punches,” White continued. “That kid hits hard. The confidence this guy has in himself is unbelievable. I haven’t seen anything like this since [Muhammad] Ali. …Floyd would take a couple of leg kicks and that would be the end of that.”
McGregor, of course, can’t use any MMA tactics against Mayweather next month.
White has made it very clear that Mayweather would “destroy Conor’s life” with a lawsuit if he attempts to do anything outside of the rules of boxing.
That still hasn’t stopped some from wondering how a fight would go down between them if there weren’t any rules, though.
Finally, White said that, after some speculation, President Donald Trump won’t see the fight in person. White told reporters last week that Trump is “100 percent interested in attending the event,” but doing so would potentially ruin it, given the required level of security. It’s the reason Trump didn’t attend UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden last year when McGregor became the UFC’s lightweight champion by knocking Eddie Alvarez out in the second round.
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