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Boxing

15th Jun 2017

Dana White discusses likelihood of Conor McGregor throwing elbow against Floyd Mayweather

It's not going to happen

Darragh Murphy

While the boxing ring will host Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather, suggestions have been made that the bout will descend into a chaotic brawl.

McGregor is more accustomed to the Octagon, where more than fists are thrown, and the Irishman’s arsenal is chock-full of elbows, kicks and grappling techniques.

But he will have to rely on only his hands when he swaps the chain-link fence for the ropes this August.

When initial rumblings of McGregor vs. Mayweather took place over a year ago, it was suggested that McGregor may well employ his MMA techniques against the boxer if the bout began to get away from him.

The unpredictable nature of ‘The Notorious’ has resulted in some concerns that McGregor may end up kicking out at or elbowing Mayweather if he feels the fight is not going in his favour but that scenario has been entirely rubbished by UFC president Dana White.

“That will not happen,” White assured, during a conference call early Thursday morning.

“That’s absolutely in the contract, number one.

“And number two, if this is a boxing match under the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s rules of boxing… when you talk about a guy of Floyd Mayweather’s value in the sport, the lawsuit if that ever happened…

“Conor likes money, man. And Conor would depart with a lot of money if that ever happened so, no, that will not happen.”

The event, which will consist entirely of boxing bouts, will be broadcast by Showtime in the United States although the UFC has obtained the rights to produce an Embedded series to document the build-up to fight night.

“Showtime is the exclusive distributor of Floyd Mayweather’s fights but they were kind enough to open the gate and let us do some stuff too,” White added.

“We’re going to do Embedded, like we do for our fights, and a couple of other things.

“But at the end of the day, Showtime is running this show.”