Veteran trainer Ronnie Shields, who works with a variety of fighters like top fighters Jermall Charlo and Erislandy Lara, does not expect a wipeout when Floyd Mayweather Jr. faces UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
On August 26th, the 40 year old Mayweather will break a two year retirement to fight McGregor, who is taking part in his first ever boxing match. The Showtime Pay-Per-View contest takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
McGregor is regarded as one of the best MMA fighters in the world, pound-for-pound, but he's going up against one of the best boxers in history.
Many experts, especially in boxing, are predicting a complete massacre with the aging Mayweather doing a real number on McGregor and putting him away in the early rounds.
Shields does not expect that type of fight to play. He believes the contest will be tough in the early going, but then Mayweather will make his necessary adjustments to run away with the contest.
"The thing about it is, nobody has seen Conor McGregor in a boxing ring, we don’t know. We all know he’s a puncher, a southpaw, an awkward and big southpaw, so I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as people think it’s going to be. All you have to do is revert back to Pacquiao and Horn. I told a lot people that I had never seen Horn before in my life until they announced the fight with Pacquiao. I went and saw how big he was for a welterweight and said, 'Man, he’s like twice as big as Pacquiao and he’s an awkward guy and throws punches that the average fighter hasn’t seen, and the guy comes forward. That’s going to give Pacquiao a lot of problems.” And what happened? He beat Pacquiao, because Pacquiao couldn’t figure him out," Shields told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"Floyd is not a knockout puncher, he’s never been a knockout puncher, but what he has that most fighters don’t have is that Floyd knows how to break you down and he takes his time doing it. This is not going to be a two or three round fight, I don’t see it that way. I see Floyd jabbing him in the body trying to soften his body up a little bit, that’s what I see."
"I think McGregor is going to pose a problem because one thing he has is power. The good thing is that Floyd is a defensive fighter because that’s what it’s going to take for him to be able to stand and be able to counter everything that McGregor is going to do. I think it’s going to be a rough and tough fight early but I think Floyd will stop him late."
