By Radio Rahim
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum has over 50 years of experience as a boxing promoter, and he doesn't view a potential Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor clash as a legitimate fight and he doesn't expect it to be competitive.
McGregor, who is arguably the biggest name in mixed martial arts, is pushing to have a boxing match with Mayweather. The two athletes have been taunting each other for well over a year.
Mayweather, who walked away from boxing in September 2015, announced last week that he was officially coming out of retirement for a fight with McGregor.
The potential fight received a huge push on Wednesday, after UFC President Dana White publicly stated that he wouldn't stand in the way of a boxing match between Mayweather and McGregor. The MMA star is under an exclusive contract with White's company.
Coincidentally, McGregor is going to hold the Irish flag during the ring walk of Olympian Michael Conlan, when the young boxer makes his pro debut on Saturday night at the Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden. Last year, Conlan signed a multi-year promotional agreement with Arum's company.
Arum says McGregor needs proper training and proper ring experience to even consider the idea of fighting a boxer on the level of Mayweather.
"McGregor is a great MMA fighter, but that doesn't make him a boxer. You need training and experience, particularly if you're thinking about fighting one of the best fighters in the world if not the best in Floyd Mayweather. That is a joke," Arum told krikya360.com.
"If Mick Conlan, who has tremendous amateur experience which McGregor doesn't... if I decided in his next fight that I would put him in with [Vasyl] Lomachenko.. people would put me in the insane ward, in the hospital, because he doesn't have the experience to fight an experienced fighter like Lomachenko."
"McGregor is a great athlete, a great MMA fighter, but he doesn't have the experience and who knows about ability to fight somebody like Floyd Mayweather. In the old days, if someone like McGregor wanted to fight someone like Floyd Mayweather, you would have him fight an ordinary guy.. say on the level that Conlan is fighting [Tim Ibarrat] - a 4-4 fighter, who I don't think he probably would beat but maybe he might, but at least we would know what type of ability McGregor has as a fighter.
"To sell a Mayweather-McGregor fight, in my mind, is a flim-flam."
In a recent interview, Mayweather explained his position on why a win over McGregor should be counted as number '50' on his record - which in turn would break the 49-0 unbeaten streak of heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano.
If that match gets sanctioned as a pro fight, Arum doubts the boxing history books would recognize that win.
"Who cares whether it is or it isn't [officially counted as his 50th fight]. Nobody, at least that I know of, is very excited about that kind of record. If he wants to breaks Marciano's record, he should do it against a real fighter," Arum said.
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