By Keith Idec
Conor McGregor hasn’t made a specific prediction publicly, but he has been telling friends he’ll knock out Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the fourth round.
According to a story posted on The Sun’s website Monday, a source close to McGregor told the London tabloid of the brash Irish southpaw’s prediction for their August 26 fight in Las Vegas.
“I’ll do him in the fourth round,” the source told The Sun. “Conor is convinced he is about to shock the world once again and is adamant he’ll do it early. He has made predictions before and has always managed to back it up, so who’s to say he’s wrong? He’s told pals he’ll KO Floyd in the fourth round.”
The press tour for their heavily hyped pay-per-view fight is set to begin late Tuesday afternoon at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The four-city tour will continue Wednesday at the Budweiser Stage in Toronto and Thursday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and will conclude Friday at Wembley Arena in London.
Mayweather is 40 and hasn’t boxed in nearly two years, yet remains more than a 5-1 favorite over McGregor ahead of their 12-round, 154-pound boxing match next month. The odds on McGregor scoring a fourth-round knockout are 25-1, according to The Sun’s story.
In 49 professional fights, Mayweather has been knocked down just once. That knockdown was the consequence of him hurting his left hand, bending over and allowing his left glove to touch the canvas in the sixth round of an eventual 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Carlos Hernandez 16 years ago in Mayweather’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Despite his age and inactivity, Las Vegas’ Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs) is commonly considered the best boxer, pound-for-pound, in the world. Dublin’s McGregor, though an accomplished mixed martial artist (21-3, 18 KOs), will participate in his first professional boxing match.
McGregor, who’ll turn 29 on Friday, has knocked out 75 percent of his opponents in MMA matches.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.