Undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is dismissing the notion that he’ll annihilate UFC fighter Conor McGregor on Aug. 26 — as most of the boxing world and Las Vegas bettors believe he will. Mayweather has acknowledged that he’s “lost a step.”
“When you look at myself and Conor McGregor on paper, he’s taller, has a longer reach, he’s a bigger man from top to bottom,” Mayweather told ESPN. “He’s a lot younger, so youth is on his side. And I’ve been off a couple of years. And I’m in my 40s. So, if you look at everything on paper, it leans toward Conor McGregor.”
Mayweather’s comments took a much different tone from his promotional tour, when the 40-year-old predicted a victory over McGregor, 29. He said then that the UFC lightweight champion didn’t stand a chance of marring his 49-0 record.
Mayweather, who came out of his 2015 retirement for the fight, credited his humbler approach to age, saying: “I’m older. I'm not the same fighter I was two years ago. I'm not the same fighter I was five years ago. I lost a step."
