John Kavanagh Gives Final Prediction For Mayweather-McGregor

Floyd Mayweather, one of the very best defensive boxers of all-time if not the very best defensive boxer of all-time, has said that he will be aggressive and go after Conor McGregor when the two meet on Saturday (Aug. 26, 2017) night in Las Vegas.

John Kavanagh, McGregor’s longtime head coach, doesn’t expect Mayweather to come forward, which is why he’s predicted a sixth-round finish for the “Notorious” one:

“When the two of them walk to the middle, one of them has to take a back step. If Floyd takes a back step, which I believe he will, then I predict round six,” Kavanagh said on The MMA Hour. “That’s my prediction on it. I think for the first five rounds, he will back up, he will lie on the ropes the way he does, he will cover up and try to just absorb, and try to wear Conor down. That’s how I think he’ll approach the fight.”

If “Money” does indeed fight how he says he’s going to, however, then Kavanagh’s prediction is a bit bolder:

“If he doesn’t take a back step, and we’ll all see it — we’ll all see their feet, we’ll all see who walks backwards — if he walks forward and exchanges, it’ll be a one-round fight. It’ll be over in a minute. Because he’d be fighting in such a way that’s not normal to him, he won’t have had time to develop the skillset for an aggressive exchanging fighter. Like I said, I didn’t know a lot about Floyd before this, but I did watch his fights for his defensive work. So for him to go in there and try to trade with Conor and not walk backwards, would be so alien to him but so normal for Conor — that’s exactly what Conor’s the best at — he’ll be unconscious in a minute.

“But I think he skips to the middle,” Kavanagh continued, “I think he has his classic hand position, Philly Shell hand position, and he’ll feint and throw a jab or something, Conor will walk forward, [Mayweather will] back up, and he’ll aim to just pot-shot, cover up, cover up, pot-shot, clinch, pot-shot, and just try to get through the first couple of rounds. As I believe that will be the case, that will be the scenario, I think round six, Conor’s hand is raised.”

Either way, Kavanagh is a predicting an early finish for McGregor, which is important to note given the fact that the majority of the boxing community is counting him out.

What do you make of Kavanagh’s comments?