29. That was only a boxing age back in the day. But he peaked in his early- to mid-twenties.

Larry Holmes was considered properly old at 38 when he fought Tyson in '88, and Ali was a shadow of his old self by that age. Whereas Mike McCallum was almost 40 when he went the distance against the prime Roy Jones (McCallum was special), and Herol Graham made a comeback at 38 and nearly beat Charles Brewer for a world title.

Mileage is a thing, but also style and dedication. Those who spar more frequently seem to burn out faster. James Toney's sparred thousands of rounds, and he's been paying the price for years. Foreman benefitted from a weakened division when he came back, but he also proved a lot of people wrong and changed opinions about fighting age.

(Although Archie Moore was there first, as I mentioned earlier.)

Anthony Joshua's talked about fighting someone in a halfway bout, just not in the near future. He's smart enough to know that he can't learn the ground game in any reasonable amount of time, so he's open to the idea of allowing kicks and grappling and everything else, minus the holds.

I'd have binge-read all of Hajime no Ippo if I was McGregor.

Diluted Dante wrote:

Yeah, Hatton was what, 28?

Yeah, but he was shit at training and his lifestyle choices, which he managed to shrug off before, were catching up with him.

U17 juniors, yeah. In the town halls that I went to, trophies were awarded to all winners. For taking part, as good as. A little trophy and a free meal.

Easiest way to predict the outcome is to work out what makes the most money for everyone involved.

I'd guess a decent length fight, at least six rounds, and a competitive one too. Probably a narrow Mayweather victory. Probably on points.

Then the inevitable rematch remains interesting.

Hmm I can't watch this on ps4. Cunts

Coverage starts at midnight BST and there's a 6 (?) fight undercard with some okay matchups on it.

It's just punching people in the face.

I think whatever happens this will be entertaining. I dont want McGregor to win as some have said already his fanboys are the absolute fucc.

That said Mayweather will at least have to respect Mcgregors ability to counterpunch accurately. One touch and i guess Mayweather its going to sleep. The problem is that Mayweather had the sickest defence of any boxer probably ever. I dont know many boxers who will deliberately back themselves to the ropes because they have absolute belief they are going to be able to roll away cleanly and get back to the centre of the ring every time.

I think its going to end on points or late stage KO if Mayweather goes in because McGregors boxing skills turn out to not be at a level that will cause Mayweather problems. Mayweather has stood and punched with an opponent from time to time when that's been the case.

Cheers escape.

Love the stuff about footwork.

It all makes sense in a general biomechanics way pretty quickly once you have a clue in one sport.

I'm far from expert obviously, but it's amazing how much just makes intuitive sense once I apply Bball thinking to it. The principles are actually similar when you talk shooting, and attacking ad defending one on one.

In fact, there's even similarities with volleyball.

A lot of it just being a case of working out the desired end result and thinking about getting power from legs to arms.

Wtf is going on in the heavy weight dev by the way?

Seems to be a bunch of ridiculous massive quick athletes NOT fighting each other. Joshua, that big quick fucker with the gold mask, who appears to just overpower, oritz, who looks like sth American forman, and a couple of dragos.

Dude with a beard, name starts with a K, Russian, appears to have concrete hands.

Why aren't they fighting each other yet? They all appear to be going undefeated against scrubs if I'm to believe youtube.

I'm wondering how McGregor's stamina will fair if it goes past 8 rounds or so.

No doubt he is fit but MMA involves delivering and taking a huge range of moves. Will his legs tire from the nonstop footwork? Will his arms tire from having to keep his gloves up constantly and up higher than he is used to?

I think it will be a knockout to Mayweather with McGregor's guard dropping more and more as the fight goes on. Especially as I can see him doing a lot more of the throwing than Mayweather.

Facewon wrote:

The principles are actually similar when you talk shooting, and attacking ad defending one on one.

Weight distro for rapid direction changes; coiling for shots like jumps; reading and selling with feints... Yeah.

Joshua, that big quick fucker with the gold mask, who appears to just overpower, oritz, who looks like sth American forman, and a couple of dragos. Dude with a beard, name starts with a K, Russian, appears to have concrete hands. Why aren't they fighting each other yet?

Money. Either because they think they're worth more than they are, and/or they want a big cheque if they lose.

Joshua — Deontay Wilder (has a belt but hardly ever fights) — Luis Ortiz (avoided because he's quite good; unofficially 120 years old) — and the Dragos include Pulev, who should be fighting Joshua next, and Povetkin, who's pretty good, but falls short against the best and he's undersized. The K's probably Kovalev, who's actually a light-heavyweight at 175lb. He recently lost again against Andre Ward.

Wlad Klitschko recently retired after turning down the Joshua rematch. You've an Aussie in Lucas Browne, and a Kiwi in Joseph Parker (who's due to fight Hughie Fury — Tyson's cousin — soon).

RedDave2 wrote:

is it a case of play super defensive and see out the fight

Could be, especially if he's encouraged that way with a few bodyshots, but his only realistic plan is fighting as dirty as possible.