If a fight between Conor McGregor and Canelo Alvarez is to actually take place, promoter Eddie Hearn believes that while the MMA icon can produce a decent performance, the fight would be on unequal grounds.
Conor McGregor and Canelo Alvarez drew attention this week due to a war of words between them on X, and speculations began about a possible future fight. It all started with McGregor reflecting on his 2017 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. On X, he wrote that he had landed more shots on Floyd than Canelo had in his past encounter with “Money”.
“One of the greatest performances in Professional Boxing this was. I landed more shots on Floyd than Canelo. I’d love another go.” wrote McGregor.
Canelo was quick to respond to the post, and wrote, “I just need one hand with you and I don’t need to throw so many punches.”
McGregor followed up with, “Saul you uncooked chicken, I’ll stomp the ligaments out of your knee joint. I don’t even need hands to end you, I’ll kick you raw pink, leave you looking like you were left out in the sun too long haha freckle arse. I will see you and we will see. Canelo is a cornflake, no sugar.”
Conor McGregor knows how to box: Eddie Hearn
Eddie Hearn, the head of Matchroom Boxing, considers that the fight between the undisputed super middleweight champion and the former UFC double champ is unequal, and such fights, while they generate massive hype, don’t return the same level of excitement as the fights end up mostly being one-sided, drawing similarity with the upcoming Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight next week.
“I think he could fight again and he would actually be in a decent boxing match, McGregor,” Hearn told iFL TV. “But it just goes back to the product. It’s like Fury vs Ngannou, it’s an amazing event, amazing hype, but you’ll see it’s a mismatch and we’ve got to move away from mismatches. Because what happens is, you build the hype and then they get in the ring and people go ‘what a load of rubbish’ and people are let down.”
Canelo told McGregor that he would beat him with just one punch and with fewer punches than he landed on Mayweather. But Hearn does not believe it will be that easy, because in his opinion the Irishman has knowledge of boxing and can offer a worthy fight.
“Look, Canelo obviously deals with all of those guys from very different worlds,” Hearn went on. “One thing I’ll say about Conor McGregor. He can box.”
Although he recalled that Mayweather even played with McGregor at times, Hearn also acknowledged that McGregor has a pedigree in boxing and offered a good fight, so Canelo would not have an easy time if a fight was to be finalized.
“Don’t forget, he [McGregor] was an amateur boxer, he’s got boxing pedigree and, let’s be honest, although Floyd Mayweather did with all due respect play with him at times, he still held his own in there. He didn’t look like another MMA fighter just out of his depth,” Hearn concluded. [H/T talkSPORT]
