Boxing’s most eccentric former world champion, Chris Eubank, makes a startling claim for why Conor McGregor can beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night
Eubank recently spoke to Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, and had a characteristically original take on things.
According to Eubank, Mayweather may have, on the other hand, an uncharacteristic and lackadaisical approach to his preparations for the Irishman on Saturday night:
“There is a way here. It’s just whether Conor knows what to use. If he can bring him into a close-quarter contest, a very ugly, ungainly fight where he’s rushing him and tenacious, then he has a chance to do the impossible.”
“If he can make it a 50-50 fight, where’s there no skill and tactics, and pit strength against strength, youth wins out. This is why I’m interested in this fight. I’ve seen him [Mayweather] train and I don’t know whether he’s training with the intensity needed to hold back an irrepressible spirit.
Eubank is considered one of Britain’s greatest boxers and was a two-time middleweight and super middleweight world champion. Having remained unbeaten in a stellar career over 43 fights, it was in Ireland against Dubliner Steve Collins where “Simply the Best” would taste his first defeat. Eubank drew somewhat of a parallel between his own upset loss, while also talking up McGregor’s unknown qualities inside the ropes:
“He’s got cauliflower ears. He’s MMA. What do we know about those guys? They can take punishment and he will have to punish him. I don’t think he’s [McGregor] bothered about pain and if he’s not, he may be irrepressible. He’s 29. He has that youthful desire to win respect.”
“In warfare, the Irish have ghost-like spirits. They can do things other nations can’t do. You’re a very hard people.”
