By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Now Conor McGregor is promising punishment.

The polarizing UFC superstar continued to state Tuesday that he’ll knock out Floyd Mayweather Jr. within two rounds when they meet Saturday night in a 12-round, 154-pound boxing match. This time, though, McGregor guaranteed that he’ll “toy with” the boxing legend after hurting him and will make Mayweather “beg me” to follow boxing’s rules.

UFC president Dana White has repeatedly reminded media and fans that McGregor would pay hefty financial penalties and subject himself to a lawsuit if he does anything to Mayweather outside of boxing’s rules when the mixed martial artist makes his boxing debut at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Resorting to MMA moves won’t be necessary, according to McGregor (21-3, 18 KOs in MMA).

“I believe I’ll knock him out early,” McGregor told a small group of reporters Tuesday after he and Mayweather made their ceremonial grand arrivals outside of T-Mobile Arena. “[In] eight-ounce gloves, I don’t see him surviving. I don’t care if he catches it on the glove, either. I’ll flatten him through the glove.

“After that, I’m starting to think maybe I’ll toy with him after he goes down. See, in mixed martial arts you get to step past the legs and pound the head, and stiffen the body. Boxing’s a little bit different, where there’s a referee to stop you from following up. So there will be eight to 10 seconds or whatever, where he has a chance to recover. If he recovers, I may decide to toy with him in there after that. But I will have the ability to put him away inside two rounds.”

The powerful southpaw later added that he’ll hurt Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs) to the point Mayweather will request for mercy as their fight progresses.

“Like I said, I’ll bang him out,” McGregor said, “hurt him badly and I may make him beg me to follow the rules here.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.