Why Conor McGregor can’t just kick the hell out of Floyd Mayweather

In Conor McGregor’s day job, he can bludgeon his opponent in any number of ways. The UFC outlaws certain savage moves, like biting, fish-hooking, groin shots, and eye-gouging, but fighters mostly have the run of their imaginations. Kicking and elbowing are as much a part of the UFC as tackling is a part of football.

On Saturday, McGregor’s not doing his day job. He’s boxing against 49-0 Floyd Mayweather, one of the best boxers who’s ever lived. Mayweather has, obviously, never been knocked out in his career. And McGregor has never boxed anybody competitively. That’s led more than a few people to thoughts like these, joking or not:

“I want to see Conor McGregor round-house kick Mayweather’s head into the sun,” writes SB Nation’s Matt Ufford, though not for the same reasons some might want to see that. Whether it’s curiosity or just desire, there’s definitely a sentiment out there that McGregor might — or should — roundhouse-kick Mayweather in the head.

That’s actually not quite true: McGregor could kick Mayweather, just like he could bring a chainsaw into the ring and try to grind him up into pieces and eat him. (Talk about a technical knockout, am I right?) But it’s not going to happen, for a few reasons.

If McGregor wants to win the fight and not get sued for an ungodly amount of money, he’s not pulling any MMA moves against Mayweather. UFC president Dana White, a McGregor adviser and promoter, says he’s contractually prohibited.

“You all know how much Conor likes money,” White told reporters. “Conor would depart with a whole lot of money if that ever happened.”

Because the fight contracts aren’t public and we don’t know how many people will pay to see it, we don’t know what McGregor will make on this fight. It’s definitely going to be tens of millions of dollars, though, and it might push $100 million.

White got into some more detail about this in a Yahoo article out Friday. He said McGregor would face a “huge penalty clause” if he went MMA on Mayweather.

“The civil lawsuit that Floyd Mayweather would have on Conor McGregor would ruin him,” White added.

McGregor doesn’t want that. Plus, he’d surely be disqualified, and per White, that could lead to his entire purse share being withheld.

This is a boxing match fought under the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s boxing rules. Those rules don’t allow mixed martial artistry. They allow boxing, and that’s all.