The potential meeting of the seasoned boxer and the mixed martial arts star under Queensberry Rules is likely to be an embarrassingly one-sided contestFor all the talk that has built up around the putative showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor being about the best pound‑for‑pound boxer of the past quarter of a century taking on the brightest star in the history of mixed martial arts, it is not. It has all the hallmarks of a mismatch. This one, like nearly all the others, is about the money.Unless there is an accident or a miracle, Mayweather will bamboozle the Irish cage fighter to the point of embarrassment with skills that carried him unbeaten through 49 professional boxing matches and garnered...
Conor McGregor won’t get a fight with Floyd Mayweather unless Mayweather believes the fight will make him very, very rich. Therein lies the impasseIf there is ever a fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, it won’t be nearly as much fun as Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor talking about a fight.Who knows if the two biggest names in MMA and boxing will actually step into a ring? They talk and talk about money and talk and talk about a deal but they never sign a contract. This is how Mayweather works, stretching the conversation, turning up the rhetoric and adding zeros to the guaranteed purses for a fight that he might not even want. It took more than five...
From Sugar Ray Robinson v Jake LaMotta to Bowie Race Track, a date traditionally associated with romance has a history of sporting slaughterOne of few consolations England could take from their humiliation at the last Cricket World Cup after their premature exit had been confirmed by Bangladesh before the party had really got started was that, when it arrived, their embarrassment had become very much the norm rather than the exception. Ultimately this flaying at the hands of the Adelaide Oval’s supposed whipping boys was not so much an upset as an act of mercy. “England had the wrong team, the wrong style of play and everyone could see it,” tweeted Shane Warne in his withering post-match assessment. “Tonight’s result...
The prospective fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is rubbernecking at its worst, but history offers precedent for events like theseAt the height of UFC middleweight Anderson Silva’s great career in 2009, he began lobbying to box Roy Jones Jr. It was Silva’s dream, he said, and for a time, other than a one-on-one bout with his clone, boxing Jones became the Brazilian’s biggest goal. UFC president Dana White spoke openly about knowing Jones. Of being friendly with Jones. And, while not quite understanding why anyone would want to see it, of wanting to deliver the bout for both Jones and Silva.Of course, though Jones was willing, it didn’t happen. Silva has chalked up the missed opportunity to the...
A majority draw was an unsatisfactory end to a stirring contest which the British fighter would have won but for a late knockdownThere was nothing to separate James DeGale and Badou Jack after their world super-middleweight title unification fight at the Barclays Center in New York. It ended in a majority draw which meant the world’s two best 168lb fighters retained their belts. But while an immediate rematch to settle unfinished business would seem the obvious next step, what is next for either man appears uncertain.DeGale, who holds the IBF’s version of the title, scored a knockdown in the first round on Saturday and boxed masterfully early on, using balletic footwork to create angles that made Jack look flat-footed and...