The words "farce" and "fantasy" have been oscillating back and forth as opinion diverges over the merit of the August 26th fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather.
Given that it is a boxing match, the general consensus is that an MMA fighter like McGregor, who has never boxed professionally before, does not have a hope of laying a glove on Mayweather, who was unbeaten throughout his own elite pro career.
Gareth A Davies of The Telegraph has an intimate knowledge of both MMA and boxing as a correspondent for both sports and he told Off The Ball that he is excited by the prospect of the fight between McGregor and Mayweather.
"I think you have to be excited. There will be a lot of boxing purists poo-pooing this contest, saying that it shouldn't be happening, that Floyd Mayweather shouldn't be going for his 50th undefeated fight and beating Rocky Marciano's record against a boxing novice," said Davies.
"But when you've got the two biggest names in combat sports coming together in a contest of this type, people are going to accuse the organisers, promoters, fighters themselves and the broadcasters of getting on the hype train. But you know what? This is a fight that the public wants."
Regardless of that, he sees McGregor as "leagues and leagues and leagues below Mayweather in boxing ability" and the fight as a "massive mismatch", although he also raised the impact of some of the imponderables.
"The thing is Floyd Mayweather is 40, McGregor is 28 and at the peak of his powers. Mayweather's been out of the ring for two years. There are all these factors that will be debated. They're imponderables," he said.
But he expects McGregor to "hit thin air, over and over and over again against Floyd Mayweather" during the fight.
"The difficulty for Conor is pinning Mayweather down in this fight," said Davies, adding that the elite boxers Mayweather faced before were unable to manage to do that and that he will "surgically beat Conor McGregor in a very technical way".
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