Legendary boxing coach Freddie Roach was approached by Floyd Mayweather to train Conor McGregor, says that fight is going to happen.
It seems like there isn’t a day that goes by where we don’t hear about a fight between Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. It started out as a silly rumor started by a British paper, and eventually went to both fighters expressing interest in it.
Now, on the latest episode of Inside MMA, Freddie Roach stated that he was approached by Mayweather who told him to train McGregor for the fight. He denied that Conor himself asked for him, but says that Mayweather came by his gym, where he said “the fight is gonna happen and we’re gonna make a lot of money.”
It seems odd that Mayweather would approach someone to train an opponent, but if this fight were to take place, it would be under boxing rules, and Roach is one of the best in the business. Roach is best known for being Manny Pacquiao’s coach.
Freddie remained noncommittal on whether he would train Conor or not, but he doesn’t give him much of a chance against Mayweather:
"I told Mayweather… it would take me three years, at least, to get him ready to fight you. I don’t think it’s really possible for an MMA fighter to fight a boxer… depending on what rules you fight under, one person has a tremendous advantage.Conor McGregor seems like a tough guy, but being a tough guy really doesn’t help you in boxing. Mayweather is the best boxer in the world, and I think he just would absolutely not lose a round against a guy with Conor’s experience."
The last time we saw a bout between a boxer and an MMA fighter was when James Toney came to the UFC to fight Randy Couture. Toney was a three-division world champion, but when he stepped into the Octagon with Couture, he fell victim to an arm-triangle choke just three minutes in.
It’s hard to imagine this fight would go any differently for McGregor if they compete under boxing rules. Conor is 0-0 as a boxer, and Mayweather has made some of the best fighters in the world look average.
While Colin Cowherd was adamant the fight would happen, and even set a date for September 17 in Las Vegas, Roach said that there was no date set. But with his insistence that it would take him three years to train Conor against Floyd, don’t expect them to wait that long for the fight to happen.
h/t Boxing Scene
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