Most boxing fans and pundits give Mcgregor no hope in their upcoming August bout. They are right of course, not only is Mcgregor a fighter with zero professional boxing matches under his belt, he is facing possibly the greatest ever defensive fighter.
With all that said, lets play devils advocate and suspend this reality for a second to explain why I will be placing a modest bet on a Mcgregor win before fight night.
Mcgregor is also not the complete novice many are painting him to be, he began his fighing journey as a boxer, this bout has been in the offing for a very long time, all the while Mcgregor has been receiving high level boxing coaching and sparring.
"See the way broadly and you will see it in all things". It is not unusual for a talented athlete at the top of their sport to pick up a completely unrelated athletic endevour and with enough work get quite good quickly. McGregor has had years in a field related to his own.
The next point is power, McGregor certainly has it in abundance. The kind of KO power which can end a fight with one punch. Sure he usually plies his trade in 4 ounce gloves but the Mayweather camp have allowed 10 ounce for this fight so the threat is still there.
I once saw a study where an elite Baseball player was pitched at slowly, with underarm throws. He missed a lot. His game was so finely tuned to the fast pitches he had always faced.
Mayweather will be receiving the boxing equivalent of this from McGregor, he has in the past showed a weakness against southpaws, boxers struggle with leftys for this very reason, the punches come from odd places and get through the usual lines of defence. Not only is McGregor a southpaw he has spent a lot of time fighting in a very diverse field. He can catch Mayweather with angles he is not used to seeing from a conventional boxer. If this happens in this fight Mayweather can be knocked out.
On to the obvious, Mayweather is aging, has been inactive and Mcgregor has a considerable size and reach advantage.
The final point is self belief. I have seen many examples of sports teams and people who build an aura of invincibility and win tge competition before it begins. Manchester United did it for years, as did Anderson Silva. Until someone comes along with such self belief it doesn't affect them. McGregor genuinely believes he will win this fight. I stopped writing him off a long time ago.