The truth is out: Floyd Mayweather did little in the way of preparation for his August 2017 boxing match against Conor McGregor, this week revealing the training camp regiment consisted of press-ups, sit-ups and a few rounds on the bag and in the ring.
In the end, of course, he didn’t need much more than that. The stoppage of McGregor, secured in the 10th round, was as straightforward as it was predictable. But it will still come as a surprise to some to hear how little Mayweather did in the lead up to such a heavily hyped so-called super fight.
“For the Conor McGregor (fight), I didn’t really train,” Mayweather said to The Drink Champs.
“All I did was do push-ups and sit-ups. That’s all I did. Push-ups and sit-ups, box a few times, hit the bag a few times, because, actually, training camp was in different places. I would do training camp in Vegas a few days, (but) sometimes I wouldn’t go to the gym for a week.
“I took it serious. Like I said before, I wanted to have some fun in the fight, and I wanted to entertain the people.”
Rest assured, after a few mildly interesting opening rounds, and that McGregor uppercut in the first, all the fun and entertainment that night was had by Mayweather and Mayweather alone. It was, for the rest of us, an event to be endured rather than enjoyed.
It seems to have been on the cards for some time now but, according to The Ring, former world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez will return to the ring on June 7 against an opponent yet to be named in Madrid, Spain.
Martinez turns 45 on February 21 and hasn’t been competitive in a boxing ring since June 2014, when halted, primarily due to injury, by Miguel Cotto in the 10th round.
With a body breaking down, retirement seemed inevitable, yet Martinez, like so many, has struggled to adapt to life without boxing and has been consistently linked with comeback fights, the most notable of which was one against old rival Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr.
“I need it, I want to do this comeback,” Martinez, 51-3-2 (28), told The Ring. “(I want to) check my feelings in the ring and feel the punches again. Then, we will see (what I can do).
“Boxing is my life. Everything was wrong in my last fight against Cotto: training camp, the injuries, my knee. Now I am feeling really good and my knees are better. All these years of rest were very good for my knees and elbows.
“I was training to do the rematch against (Julio Cesar) Chavez Jnr, but he let me down at the last minute. Since then I’ve been training for a fight. None of the big names want to face me and this is why I will make a comeback in a small show in Spain. We don’t have too much of a budget but, for sure, the opponent will be a tough one.”
Though originally from Argentina, Martinez is now based in Spain and should be able to attract a decent crowd regardless of the quality of the opponent he ends up facing. He will, according to The Ring, also be working with a new trainer in the form of Tinín Rodríguez.
