From the cheap seats
At the more rarefied pay-cheque end of sport, there's been a buzz around for some time about a prospective fight matching Floyd Mayweather with Conor McGregor.
Mayweather is, of course, the most successful, and most spectacularly financially remunerated, boxer of recent times.
Leaping Larry.
McGregor is the biggest star of mixed martial arts (MMA) – or as many know it under easily its biggest proprietary name, UFC. He's a multi-division champion and crossover star.
Given that both are notoriously mouthy, many probably took the months of initial chatter with a grain of salt the approximate size of Siberia.
The buzz has become more of a raucous bellow lately, despite many roadblocks in the way – (UFC president Dana White is one) – and both fighters seem increasingly keen for the putative match-up to go ahead. The potential availability of tremendous truckloads of folding cash can have that effect.
What's ironic that the biggest sell of such an event, apart from the stars themselves, is the curiosity factor about whether the boxing champ or the MMA star would prevail.
This is arguably a selling point which applies primarily to those who don't understand boxing, MMA or both.
There was already an analogous contest under the UFC's aegis.
In 2010, at the tail end of his MMA career, the UFC's multiple (and multi-division) champion Randy Couture was put in the octagonal cage with boxer James "Lights Out" Toney, under standard MMA rules (i.e. not boxing rules.)
Toney had been a dangerous middleweight world champ in the 90s, by 2010 long since blown up to heavyweight, where he was nonetheless able to contend with the ranked fighters of a fairly lacklustre division at the time (including a ninth-round stoppage win over a declining Evander Holyfield).
There was a similar buzz about whether the boxer or the MMA guy would win. Couture took control from the outset and won by submission in 3:19 of the first round.
When they asked Couture in the post-fight interview what would have happened if he'd have met Toney under boxing rules, he laughed and said the same thing, only in reverse.
And that's the simple answer.
Under MMA rules, there are too many techniques and pitfalls Floyd would face that he hasn't trained in, but McGregor has, extensively.
He'd have the proverbial "puncher's chance" which, translated from fight-ese back to English, essentially means little-to-no chance.
Under boxing rules, it would be an MMA champ against an uncommonly skilled boxer who was never beaten in the professional ring. McGregor would have the "puncher's chance" there, i.e. virtually none.
Mayweather won't get in there under MMA rules. So you pretty much have your winner. Or as current UFC fighter (and McGregor admirer) the "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung recently commented to the Washington Post: "Under boxing rules, I don't see any way that Conor could beat Mayweather ... I'd put every last cent I have on Mayweather."
The main intrigue would reside in the fight's ultimate dollar gross.
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