Click here to view odds on a potential McGregor vs Mayweather MMA fight in the UFC.
We’re now one day away from the sports betting extravaganza of 2017! After being dissected for over a year, the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor superfight will take place on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with the fighters competing at 154 pounds with eight-ounce gloves. The buildup to the fight has been a complete and total circus so far, but ludicrousness aside, it appears as if it’ll be the most lucrative fight in combat sports history.
We’ve come a very long way to get here. After Conor McGregor’s win at UFC 205 over Eddie Alvarez in November, speculation for the mega-fight picked up, causing social media and sports talk shows to blow up, which resulted in online sportsbooks setting odds for the fight. Unsurprisingly, Floyd Mayweather originally opened as a HUGE favorite, coming in at -2250, with McGregor coming back at +950. On the day the fight became official, Mayweather’s odds were down to -800 with McGregor coming back at +500. Odds continue to move for the bout as the two fighters continue to trade insults through the media.
The interest for the fight is clearly there, but many viewed the likelihood of this fantasy fight to be more fiction than reality. “This fight is a long shot to happen, in my opinion, and McGregor is a bigger long shot if it does happen,” Sportsbook sportsbook manager Kevin Bradley said after odds for the fight initially opened. “Floyd has never really been hit his entire career against the baddest professional boxers in the world, so Conor will have to shock the world to even lay some leather on Mayweather.”
Analysis from boxing pundits is that Mayweather will absolutely dust McGregor, which is a fair assessment considering McGregor has zero pro boxing experience. For what it’s worth, and it’s not very much, McGregor was an all-Ireland boxing champion during his youth.
Mayweather brings a perfect 49-0 pro boxing record into the fight. He’s made a living off of his defensive, counterpunching style of boxing, and given McGregor’s lack of experience with bigger gloves, he’ll likely have trouble landing significant strikes on Money Mayweather.
If you are looking to cash in on McGregor, however, he does have a number of factors working to his advantage. He’s younger, bigger and has incredible punching power and accuracy. A quick scan of his hit list from our UFC fight analysis shows he’s put down men who’d never been KO’d or even dropped before and an argument can be made that he has the best hands in the history of MMA. Another factor to consider is that Mayweather hasn’t fought since September 2015, which will make it 714 days between fights, so there’s no way of knowing how the prolonged layoff might affect the 40-year-old.
Bet on McGregor vs Mayweather!
- Floyd Mayweather -350
- Conor McGregor +265
