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By Alex Kuhn
Sports Editor 

Hear me out...Don't get suckered in by the Mayweather/McGregor fight

 

June 24, 2017

I really want to go on a rant about the Chicago Bulls front office and how horrendous they are at their jobs, because they made the two worst trades of the NBA Draft Thursday night. They traded Jimmy Butler, a top-15 player in the league, for 50 cents on the dollar to Minnesota. Which sent up a Batman-like signal that said, "Hey we're dumb, come make a deal with us!"; to which the Golden State Warriors obliged and gave the Bulls cash for draft pick Jordan Bell, a valued, and much needed, rim protector.

Just writing that paragraph was frustrating and depressing all at once. So as a means to step away from the ledge I'm going to spare you the rant from a sad Bulls fan. Instead, I'm going give you some advice that is guaranteed to save you money.

On August 26 the much hyped Floyd Mayweather/ Conor McGregor fight will happen and while you may be tempted to buy or go to a friend's and watch it.

DO NOT WATCH THIS FIGHT.

It's going to be the most boring "marquee" fight in boxing history.

Going by the tale of the tape, Mayweather and McGregor are remarkable similar. Mayweather is 5 feet 8 inches and McGregor 5 feet 9 inches. Mayweather weighs 151 and McGregor 154, for what it's worth they both agreed to fight at 154 for the matchup. Mayweather's reach is 72 inches and McGregor's 74 inches. So neither fighter has a physical advantage in this aspect.

Mayweather is 40 while McGregor is 28, but Mayweather is ageless so no advantage there for McGregor.

What's going to make this fight so damn boring is Mayweather is one of the greatest defensive boxers of all-time and McGregor is a UFC fighter. There is a difference and Mayweather is going to make that difference painfully obvious for McGregor, and those in his corner, on Aug. 26.

Boxing has been Mayweather's career and he's gone against actual boxers and didn't lose a single fight. He retired from boxing in 2015 with a 49-0 record. There is debate around whether or not he ducked people in their primes, like Manny Pacquiao or he picked guys way too early in their career like Canelo Álvarez. But the reality is Mayweather still beat all of them and none of them really landed significant blows.

Mayweather is so quick at evading punches and his counters are a thing of beauty. Don't believe me? YouTube Mayweather highlights and it will be boxer after boxer punching air as he lands punch after punch. It really is a shame that he's such a reprehensible human being, otherwise he'd be celebrated much more than he is.

So what's McGregor, who has limited boxing experience, going to do against one of the best defensive fighters in boxing history? He's going to get smoked.

I'm in the same camp with ESPN's Max Kellerman in that McGregor isn't going to land a punch. Remember how painful it was watching Pacquiao trying to hit Mayweather in 2015? This fight is going to be like that but worse for McGregor. He'll be chasing shadows all night long.

As the fight wears on, McGregor is going to get frustrated because he's punching air and that's going to lead to him being overly aggressive and really exposing himself to Mayweather's counters. This fight will be a glorified episode of "Pros vs. Joes".

I'm not picking on McGregor, because I'd be saying the same thing if Mayweather entered the octagon. Being a world-class athlete gives you the advantage against 99 percent of the world's population. But when you're going against other world-class athletes on their terms and their specialty you lose any advantage you had. Kind of like how Tim Tebow is stinking it up in Single A baseball.

The only redeemable aspect of this fight is going to be the press conferences and the weigh-in leading up to the bout. Both Mayweather and McGregor are at the tippy top of the trash talking mountain. The insults they're going to throw at each other will be great. I'd pay for the weigh-in press conference before I'd ever pay for the fight.

Now that I saved you from lighting your hard-earned dollar on fire, think of all that you will save on not buying this pay-per-view or on food and beer for a fight party. With that extra money we should start a GoFundMe campaign to buy the Chicago Bulls and fire those clowns that traded Jimmy Butler for a bucket of day-old popcorn.

 
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