Retired boxer and Conor McGregor rival Paulie Malignaggi recently said there is a chance that the UFC Lightweight Champion may get himself disqualified in the upcoming super fight against Floyd Mayweather.
Joe Cortez is a longtime referee and in the boxing hall of fame and he firmly believes that none of the tactics McGregor may use in the fight will cause a DQ.
“[Conor] knows the kind of referee that I’ve been throughout the years. I’ve refereed close to 200 world championship fights, so I think he pays a lot more attention and I speak to him with a lot more details in what can go wrong if he doesn’t comply by the rules. So I think he’s very pleased, just as I am. Like I said, every session he gets better, he wants to learn more, he keeps asking me questions, and I tell him exactly what’s gotta be done. I think everything is gonna be just fine come Saturday night,” Cortez said on The Mac Life.
The longtime referee does have experience as a boxer as well, because he is a former Golden Gloves champion.
While Cortez won’t make a prediction on the super fight, the one thing he does say is that McGregor does have a punchers chance.
“The boxing community has taken a lot of interest in this fight because they’ve never seen anything like that. Conor has been showing that he has the confidence in himself, he definitely has the skills as far as MMA is concerned, he has the strength, he can punch. . . The boxing fans will say, Mayweather should win, but you know what I say? Anyone who has a punch, has a puncher’s chance,” says Cortez.
Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather takes place on Saturday, August 26 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
