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COULD MCGREGOR RUIN MAYWEATHER'S LEGACY?

By Paul Magno | July 25, 2017
COULD MCGREGOR RUIN MAYWEATHER'S LEGACY?

For a long time now, critics have been trying their best to minimize and tarnish the professional legacy of Floyd Mayweather. Ironically, the very fight many of these serial antagonists DIDN’T want is probably the one fight that could lead to their end goal.

With a certain set of very vocal fans and media members, nothing Mayweather did was ever good enough. This should come as no surprise to anyone who follows the sport. Whoever he fought wasn’t good enough and whoever WAS good enough, well, Mayweather fought him at the “wrong” time. Forget that Mayweather actually fought just about everyone he was accused of ducking and finished his career with a long succession of opponents pulled directly from the Top 3 or 4 of each division in which he has competed. It has never been good enough for the critics and, with each step forward, Mayweather has found new obstacles placed between him and full recognition. 

If he had stayed retired, the assault on Mayweather’s legacy would’ve been a battle of theory buried in re-writing history. But now that he’s coming back, pitted against an opponent most everyone in boxing feels should be an easy challenge to turn back, there’s a shot at finally destroying the professional legacy the critics have long sought to bury.

If the unthinkable happens and Conor McGregor is able to land that one miraculous knockout punch, Mayweather instantly becomes a laughingstock in the eyes of many fans, most in the media, and pretty much the entire mainstream sports world. 

Don’t laugh. It SHOULDN’T happen, but absolutely nothing is a given in boxing. McGregor’s size, punching power, and novice-awkwardness—along with Mayweather’s age and ring rust after a long layoff-- could allow for that one big punch to find its way to the favorite’s chin. Oh yeah, it could happen.

And if it DOES, a face-first Mayweather or a Mayweather battered to a pulp in a corner, could be the image that replaces the story of his career, which is currently filled with wins over names like Pacquiao, Cotto, De la Hoya, Hatton, and Corrales. The internet will light on fire with fans and media racing to their keyboards to laugh at the man who already burned asses by claiming to be “The Best Ever.” The furor will be so intense that nobody, even fans of his, will be able to think beyond the unthinkable stoppage. 

But Mayweather doesn’t really need to be KO’d for his legacy to be tarnished. 

At this point, the odds are so one-sided in Floyd’s favor and the narrative is so set in Mcregor being the hopeless underdog, that, really, anything less than an utterly dominant victory will be seen as a loss in the eyes of boxing people.

The truth is that Mayweather SHOULD dominate just about every second of the fight. Logically, McGregor shouldn’t stand a chance of doing anything other than being brave in defeat. And that’s where Mayweather has painted himself into a bit of a corner. 

If Mayweather doesn’t chop McGregor to pieces, either within a couple of rounds or after a sustained beating over the course of eight to ten, it will be seen as a loss. That’s just the way it is and, honestly, it’s a reasonable way to see things. The disparity in talent and skill IS that vast.

One fight shouldn’t be enough to ruin a name, regardless of who it comes against or what happens in the bout, but in Mayweather’s case it will be. Big money and big fame generates a big target. And, with Mayweather, there’s a legion of ill-wishers and deniers out there just looking for their chance to finally kill off his legacy. 

Oddly enough, McGregor—the scourge of boxing “purists” everywhere for being granted the license to fight a veteran future Hall of Famer in his debut bout—is also the last hope and potential savior of those looking to finally destroy Mayweather’s name.

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