NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with lifelong martial artist, former UFC and Battlecade Extreme Fighting matchmaker, TV commentator, and our senior correspondent, John Perretti.

Our topic was the absurd boxing match planned for August 26 between the recent top pound-for-pound boxer, Floyd Mayweather, who is 49-0, and UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who is 0-0 in boxing.

We spoke with John Perretti by Skype Thursday.

While most people in boxing circles see this fight as a disgraceful spectacle and money grab with zero chance for McGregor to win, there are many people in MMA circles, who have little or no familiarity with boxing, who actually are true believers that it could be a competitive fight. It was mainly to dispel such notions that we focused our discussion.

"The beauty of boxing is in the rules," he said, "because you cannot hit from the waist down. With not hitting from the waist down, that creates the ability of somebody like Sugar Ray Robinson to be able to do the things that he could do in the ring because he had the mobility of his legs and he had no worries about anybody attacking his legs.

"Now that's where mixed martial arts and kickboxing change the world. And when you land elbows on a guy in boxing, it's illegal. But when you land elbows on a guy in muay Thai, it's perfectly legal.

"So I don't know what this is about," he continued, "but I will tell you that if this goes more than six rounds, there's a reason for it, and it's not because of the prowess of Conor McGregor."

We discussed the possibility that "something odd" may occur in this spectacle, why most boxing people see this fight as a joke but many MMA people don't, the ignorance of boxing and misinformation spread about it by many MMA commentators, why the Nevada commission approved a fight between 49-0 and 0-0 boxers, and much, much more.

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Labels: boxing, Conor McGregor, Eddie Goldman, Floyd Mayweather, John Perretti, mixed martial arts, MMA, No Holds Barred, scam, spectacle