Dan Hardy: Conor McGregor making boxing establishment face some hard truths

We are now just days away from boxing going on trial like never before. Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will present the prosecution’s case.

It is fitting that in a venue that has been holding events for less than a year, a boxing neophyte could potentially undermine a craft pursued for millennia. All McGregor must do is muster a modicum of competitiveness during his professional debut against the 49-0, five-division world champion, Floyd Mayweather.

The disparity in pugilistic pedigree between the pair is so vast and, for that matter, unprecdented at this level, that anything other than the unqualified annihilation of McGregor may be considered an indictment of Mayweather and, by extension, boxing.

Although they have not explicitly said as much, one can’t help glean the impression this is exactly why a significant portion of the boxing establishment has been so dismissive of McGregor and the bout.

UFC color commentator and analyst Dan Hardy, who will fill a similar role for the Sky Sports pay-per-view broadcast of the fight in the United Kingdom and Ireland, believes McGregor sees himself not just in conflict with Mayweather, but the entire boxing industry.

Floyd Mayweather

“One thing that stuck out for me during the press tour is that Conor doesn’t necessarily feel like he’s against Floyd Mayweather in this fight,” Hardy told MMAjunkie. “I think he feels like he’s against boxing, because all the criticism and disrespect that’s coming toward Conor in the buildup to this fight is coming from respected people in the boxing community and people who work for Showtime.”

The dynamic between boxing and MMA has tended to veer between suspicion and indifference, perhaps because the latter’s surge in popularity has coincided with the relative demise of the former’s.

Furthermore, when Mayweather accepted the gauntlet laid down by McGregor via social media and late-night talk shows, it forced the power brokers in each sport to interact for the first time.

Given that Mayweather is hardly beloved in his own circles, Hardy reckons many of his peers will be even less enamored by him for dignifying the Irish upstart’s proposal. However, they’re likely to be willing him on like never before Saturday.

“I think there is some relief on the boxing side because Conor did decide to call out the biggest name in their sport,” Hardy said. “As much as the boxing community may hate Floyd Mayweather, and I’m sure hates him even more for putting boxing in this position, they’ll be relieved that he’s still the best boxer on the planet and their representative.

“If Conor happens to put him down, he’ll have done what 49 boxers have not been able to do, and that’s a massive hit to boxing in general – especially given the fact that Mayweather is the greatest defensive boxer we’ve ever seen.”

Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor

But there just might be more to it than that. What if McGregor embodies not only MMA, but an undisputable fact that boxing people are loath to acknowledge?

Fittingly enough, Saturday will be just two days prior to the seventh anniversary of UFC 118 and Randy Couture’s facile win over three-weight world boxing champion James Toney.

Couture, a former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight kingpin, was selected to fly the MMA flag when Dana White finally granted Toney’s request for a chance to step inside the octagon. It took Couture a little more than three minutes to drag Toney to the mat and apply an arm-triangle choke the boxer barely had the wherewithal to tap to.

Given the comparatively modest circumstances, the victory did not induce any tangible paradigm shift in combat sports. But it was nonetheless a brutal demonstration of MMA’s potency in comparison to linear martial arts. This, according to Hardy, is at the root of the vitriol directed at McGregor.

“You’ve got to think that, up until the emergence of mixed martial arts, boxers were fighters,” Hardy said. “If you were a boxer, you were considered a fighter, but now you’re not. If you’re a boxer, you’re a boxer, but if you’re an MMA practitioner, you are a fighter.

“That’s a strong difference there, because a lot of people get into boxing for the tough guy aspect, which is kind of diminished now when there’s someone who can kick you in the leg, take you down and strangle you.”

Moreover, Hardy believes MMA has redefined what it means to be a professional unarmed combatant, and the rubric the participants now fall under.

Conor McGregor

“It immediately makes them realize how single-minded they’ve been in their approach,” Hardy said. “Not that that’s a problem, because if you choose to be a boxing specialist, I have no issue with that. But don’t claim to be a fighter when you’re only using your fists, because you’re lying to yourself and everybody else.”

On the topic of untruths, the former UFC welterweight title challenger also found Mayweather’s bloviations about facing McGregor under MMA rules to be laughable – a sentiment he believes the paying public would share.

“When Floyd’s on the stage saying they can fight in the octagon, with four-ounce gloves, he says it with that tough guy attitude – but everybody in the arena knows he’s full of (expletive),” Hardy said. “The general fans, even the boxing fans, whether they’re lying to themselves or not, are educated enough to know the reality without it playing out.

“We don’t need to see Floyd step into the octagon and get James Toney-ed, to know that’s exactly what would happen. It’s a foregone conclusion and not even up for question. The only reason people would tune into that is for the satisfaction of seeing Floyd getting his little head squeezed off.”

For Hardy, it’s McGregor and his masterfully cultivated persona wading into uncharted and hostile territory that provides the requisite uncertainty to make this seemingly absurd matchup so financially viable – a collective burning desire to finally resolve what once was a hypothetical notion.

“There is a question of what would happen if we take an MMA fighter and put him in with one of the best boxers of all time,” Hardy said. “That’s the argument in and of itself, because millions of people will buy pay-per-views to see that question be asked and answered. That wouldn’t happen if Floyd Mayweather crossed over into MMA.”

For more on “The Money Fight: Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor,” check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.