Can Floyd Mayweather knock out Conor McGregor?

The short answer to the question “Can Floyd Mayweather knock out Conor McGregor?” is yes. But it’s a lot more complicated than that. The undefeated boxing champion is heavily favored over McGregor, a two-time UFC champion in the sport of mixed martial arts, but his style has never revolved around knockout power.

Instead, his style is very technical, and revolves around him frustrating his opponents with evasiveness and strong defensive boxing. He wears his opponents down, which will certainly be a factor in a boxing match with a max run time much higher than any MMA fight McGregor has ever been in.

Those who find themselves picking McGregor seem to be banking on a quick knockout. Such a knockout can be found thanks to the lighter gloves — from the standard 10-ounce gloves down to eight ounces — and McGregor’s astounding ability to talk trash. If Mayweather can be goaded into fighting an aggressive slugfest of a fight, his own superior technical boxing would certainly show some holes.

But it’s not likely, which also means a one-punch knockout of McGregor is also not likely. Mayweather doesn’t fight that kind of fight, so if that’s your definition of a knockout, it can’t happen. Mayweather simply doesn’t possess that kind of one-punch power.

What he can do is leave his opponent completely and utterly exhausted and stranded in deep, deep waters. If Mayweather is working his game plan, then six or seven rounds into the fight, McGregor has barely touched him. The damage he’s done to McGregor at that point in the fight is primarily psychological and is also predicated on McGregor’s gas tank.

And that’s when a knockout could happen. Not necessarily with a big knockdown or something that puts McGregor out of consciousness, but a string of well-timed, well-executed combos against a tired McGregor would make any referee think about stepping in. A referee stoppage in the event that McGregor has nothing left in the tank is completely feasible.

McGregor has shown the ability to absorb a ton of damage in mixed martial arts. The gloves are much smaller and punches hit that much harder. The best fight to illustrate what we’re discussing in this article is McGregor’s first fight against Nate Diaz. McGregor went into that one as the much smaller man, and he ate some big, big shots early.

But he didn’t go down. McGregor absorbed a ton of punishment from Diaz, someone who hits with plenty of force, and didn’t go down. But he did stop defending himself, and he did look lost and out of his element. Diaz, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, quickly took advantage of McGregor’s state of being and locked in a rear-naked choke for the victory.

So really, that fight illustrates both sides of the Mayweather knockout argument. On one hand, Mayweather simply isn’t going to deal the kind of damage that Diaz dealt McGregor. But if Mayweather can tire him out, frustrate him over time, and create a similar circumstance where McGregor is out of his element, Mayweather can definitely force a stoppage.