In this telephone interview conducted by FightHype’s Ben Thompson, respected trainer Virgil Hunter gives his thoughts on the insights he was able to draw about Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor’s respective body types.
Hunter on if he was able to get any insight to how the fight will play out based on Floyd and Conor’s face-off where Conor displayed his physique:
“It was interesting because I did and one of the things that I noticed is that [McGregor’s] body - he has the waist of a model. He doesn’t have a fight trunk...he has a waist as opposed to a trunk. There’s a difference. You know, a trunk is strong, powerful, thick — not only be able to take it but get out of the way. But he has more of a model’s waist and if I’m thinking like Floyd, I’m thinking about the body because his body’s gonna be very vulnerable to body shots. Everything is sitting right there for you to touch. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of in-fighting on Floyd’s behalf.
“Also [McGregor] has what we call ‘The Fighter’s Curse.’ He has bone ridges over his eyes. I noticed he has cut a lot in the eyes in MMA fighting. He also has that jutting chin. So that’s a curse within itself also. But I expect him to cut over the eyes because of the bone ridges, and when those snapping punches hit you over the eyes like that he’ll get cut worse that he did in MMA. In my opinion he’ll cut up.”
On if that may play a factor in the fight:
“Of course. And it’s funny we’re talking about cuts because I was speaking to Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran and he was initially gonna be working his corner to make sure that he gets the best representation that he can in that department. And then they turned him down because they said he was overpricing his work. I mean, that sounds ridiculous to me. How can you overprice someone’s work and feel you would want to get the best cutman that you can get to keep you in the fight?!
“Now, he can’t stop you from getting cut but he can stop the cut from stopping you in the fight. So his work is proven and, you know, there are a lot of great cutmen out there but when you’re talking about cutmen in the [fight] circles, his name comes up first. So I think it’s foolish if they don’t meet his price because that could really, really have an affect on the fight, if he starts cutting.
“If he gets a cut and he can’t stop himself from getting hit in the face, it’s just a matter of time.
“...so I don’t know if it’s a personal thing or whatever but it just doesn’t sound right. It seems like with the money being made, that’s just a penny in a pile of money that you would have to pay Stitch.”