The long talked about boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and UFC champion Connor McGregor has finally been announced. It will take place on August 26th in Las Vegas. Some view it as very intriguing matchup among fighters from different sports, while others see it as a circus show for a quick and easy profit.

Floyd is one of only two fighters to have retired with an undefeated record of 49 consecutive wins, the other being former heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano. Assuming Mayweather beats McGregor, he would become the first boxer to ever retire with 50 wins and no losses. Is this fight just an easy pick for Mayweather though?

This is the most high profile example of two fighters from different combat sports competing against each other, but there have been other crossovers in the past.

Former multi-division boxing champion James Toney took off the boxing gloves and entered MMA against UFC legend Randy Couture. Toney was taken down immediately and submitted easily. Under MMA rules he no ground skills to defend against Couture.

Another example is former world boxing champion Vince Phillips who fought in a kickboxing match for the K-1 organization against K-1 Max champion Masato. The result was Masato dominating the bout with leg kicks and stopping the boxer with the one element that isn’t in the sport of boxing.

The results of these two fights should have come as no surprise, but there is one last example where the fighter going into the different sport actually won and won big. Former heavyweight Olympic gold medalist and professional world heavyweight champion Ray Mercer went up against former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia and knocked him out with a single punch in under 20 seconds into the fight.

So is this match merely a circus show or a legitimate contest?

It will be under boxing rules, which gives Mayweather a clear advantage. For mostly this reason, I predict FLoyd will KO McGregor with ease in the middle rounds of the fight. While MMA and boxing have some similarities, they also have some glaring differences. McGregor is a very good striker in MMA, but FLoyd has been boxing literally since he was in the cradle. To say that Floyd has mastered the sweet science is an understatement. So to think Connor has any chance whatsoever is foolishness.

Does this fight hurt the sport of boxing?

The whole event itself is too similar to a circus to me, but this one fight won't hurt the sport in the long run. I also don’t think it will necessarily usher in a new era of these fights between combat sport athletes, but this fight is definitely the biggest event of these kinds of fights. The build up of this fight will probably be a bigger event than the action in the ring.

I’ll still be watching this fight out of curiosity but I’m much more focused on other fights coming up such as Ward vs Kovalev II, Canelo vs Golovkin, and Garcia vs Broner as well as seeing some of my favorite boxers like Lomachenko and Chocolatito. I will be making an effort to not pay attention to all the hype that is on the way for Mayweather vs McGregor, but the silver lining is that maybe some MMA fans will start to become fans of boxing or vice versa. In that respect it could be a beneficial fight for both sports. Nevertheless, this will be the easiest money Floyd Mayweather has ever made.

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