Sugar Ray Leonard: How the Hall of Famer views Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor spectacle
Hall of Fame boxer Sugar Ray Leonard never thought the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor big money crossover spectacle would come to fruition. Like most of the rest of us, he was shocked when it became official.
Now that it’s finally upon us, Leonard gives McGregor little chance for the upset on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET).
Leonard will have a ringside view of the action as he was selected, along with former middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs, to analyze two preliminary fights for Fox Sports: Cuban challenger Yordenis Ugas (19-3, 9 KOs) faces Thomas Dulorme (24-2, 18 KOs) in a 10-round welterweight matchup and prospects Juan Heraldez (12-0, 8 KOs) and Jose Miguel (13-0, 12 KOs) in a 10-round super lightweight bout. The prelims will begin at 7 p.m. ET on Fox Sports, with Brian Kenny calling the blow-by-blow action.
Just how much of a chance McGregor has, Leonard believes, will depend on what Mayweather doesn’t bring into the ring more than on what McGregor brings into the ring, an unfamiliar workplace for the Irish MMA superstar.
Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs), about a 6-1 favorite, has not fought in nearly two years since his September 2015 retirement, a break that Leonard is intimately familiar with. He came back from a nearly three-year retirement a little more than 30 years ago to shock the boxing world with his upset of middleweight champion Marvin Hagler.
“Getting back into that zone,” Leonard said by phone this week. “I’ll tell you what, sometimes you get to the ring and it’s not your night. And that could happen. Will it happen? I doubt it, because Floyd is a winner.”
Leonard believes Mayweather is taking this fight very seriously despite tales of late-night forays to his Vegas strip club, even during this fight week. “Trust me,” he says. “Guys of Mayweather’s caliber take it all seriously.”
That’s one of the reasons he leans heavily toward Mayweather’s corner.
“It’s 99 percent Mayweather, one percent McGregor. And that’s a lot,” Leonard says. “Mayweather will make it a boxing match. The only thing that could throw Mayweather off is the angle of punches that McGregor throws. It’s going to be different. If McGregor comes in there winging punches and performing like a fighter, it could be interesting. It could be kind of a knock-down, drag-out fight. I don’t think that will happen, but that’s a best-case scenario.”
McGregor’s only chance, Leonard explains, is to “go in there and try to overwhelm (Floyd), try to make him mad, grab him, push him, whatever he can get away with.”
Sugar Ray insists that the eight-ounce gloves the fighters have agreed to use will help Mayweather more than McGregor.
“When I boxed, eight ounces was night and day to 10-ounce gloves, because of hand speed and just the overall glove, the way it feels. I have small hands, Floyd has small hands and for a guy who has enormous speed, it’s perfect.”
As for punching power, Leonard explains that eight-ounce gloves offer “more knuckles.
“They say that Floyd is not a puncher, but if he hits McGregor, he will definitely hurt him. What people don’t understand, it’s not just the chin or the physical strength, it’s mentally, psychologically, spiritually. They come into play. McGregor’s never experienced this kind of audience.”
Does Leonard ever wish he had a chance at a massive money fight like this back in the day?
“Every frickin’ day,” the 61-year-old former world champion chuckled. “It’s funny you mentioned that because I called my father the other day. He’s 95. I said, ‘Pops, I want to make sure you watch the fight. I’m going to order the fight for you and everything.’ I said, ‘Pops, you know they’re making $100 million.’ And he said, ‘How come they didn’t give you that much?’ I said, ‘it’s a different time, Pop.’ “
Different time, indeed.