John DeStefano
Floyd Mayweather Jr has been boxing for twenty-one years culminating in an impressive fifty wins with over half of these victories coming from KO. However, he might have one more challenger. With Khabib Nurmagomedov’s victory over Connor McGregor in early October Khabib has wasted no time in deciding his next target. After Khabib called out Mayweather on Instagram on October 14th, Mayweather has wasted no time in accepting the challenge… for the right price. With Nurmagomedov taking the place of McGregor as the rising star of the UFC will he be able to succeed in the boxing ring where his predecessor could not?
Mayweather, who has not fought a professional bout since fall of 2017, has expressed interest in coming out of retirement and taking the challenge by Nurmagomedov sometime in 2019. Mayweather declared, “He called me out. So, he gotta come to my world”. While Mayweather may have removed himself from fighting in the big events recently, he has not removed himself from the fighting scene. He will have all the resources of Mayweather Promotions which includes his state-of-the-art gym and Mayweather Boxing Club behind him to prepare for this fight. Additionally, Mayweather has demonstrated that he can still fight coming out of retirement; defeating Connor McGregor after almost a two-year hiatus.
On the other side of the ring is a Dagestan native who has been training in fighting sports since the age of eight and carries an undefeated title in the UFC. Khabib started training to wrestle at a young age of eight; and three days before his ninth birthday he wrestled an unmuzzled bear cub. At 15 Khabib began learning Judo, and at 17 Sambo, a martial art developed in the 1920’s by the Red Army. Since winning his professional debut in 2008 Khabib has not stopped.
This fight would not be a problem to organize under normal circumstances, however after multiple brawls broke out between Khabib and McGregor’s teams after their fight it might not be so simple. Following the Khabib McGregor fight at UFC 229, the Nevada State Athletic Commission has filed a complaint and is investigating the incident, resulting in an initial ten-day suspension for both men. The suspension could grow based on the findings of the investigation. This removes the ability for the fight to happen in Nevada, a place that has both the ability to host an event and is familiar to both men, until further notice.
With recent high-profile fights becoming increasingly popular and more lucrative this matchup should be another pay-per-view blockbuster. There are many speculations about how these two fighters will match up, who has the best training, comparisons, statistics, anything that can be measured and observed between the two will surely be analyzed as the fight approaches. However, with Nurmagomedov’s investigation by the Nevada State Athletic Commission this historic fight may not be happening in the foreseeable future, if at all. With all the uncertainty one thing is for sure, both of these men are the best at what they do, and a competition between these two would be something that will go down in the history books.
