?My role will be to prepare McGregor so that he does not commit any breach of the rules on the day of the fight??
Conor McGregor hopes to scale Mt. Everest on August 26 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, but knows he can?t do it alone.
Paulie Malignaggi has joined his camp, doing his darnedest to impersonate the elusive Floyd Mayweather, at least insofar as he is able.
And now, in addition to having the talkative former welterweight champion as a sparring partner, McGregor has invited Hall of Fame referee Joe Cortez to join the team. Cortez, who has a working familiarity with some of Mayweather?s tricks, will recreate scenarios for McGregor, simulations of situations in which he may find himself, for the first and perhaps last time in his career.
If Cortez?s can prevent McGregor from doing what comes naturally, he may not lose the fight by disqualification.
?I?m working with McGregor as a unified boxing advisor,? said Cortez. ?My job is to teach him not to commit any mistakes during his fight against Mayweather Jr.?
McGregor is more or less starting from scratch when it comes to boxing and mistakes will be made. He?ll have go all the way back to the London Prize Ring Rules, which forbade kicking and choking and all the other cool stuff at which Conor is proficient. There?s a lot to learn and little time to do it and Joe Cortez, with his insider?s knowledge of Floyd?s will to win, is the tutor du jour.
?They were looking for a referee with a broad knowledge of the rules and that?s where my name came from,? Cortez explained. ?I honestly do not know how, but for me it?s an honor. I know they had several names on the table, but they finally selected me and above everyone to be involved in some way for this event that possibly is one of the biggest of the year.?
This event isn?t just possibly ?the biggest of the year.? With King Midas at the controls, it will be the biggest such event in the history of such events.
Cortez is no stranger to controversy. He has been the third man in the ring for 176 title bouts, not least of which was the 2011 fight between Mayweather and Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand. Victor was less vicious than hapless that night and tried to make nice with a stone-cold killer. After apologizing for the umpteenth time for what looked like an intentional headbutt, Ortiz gave Floyd saw an opening that was too good to resist and got knocked out with a legal sucker punch. It was not, all things being equal, his finest hour. But it wasn?t Joe Cortez?s finest hour, either. He might have been ?firm but fair,? a promise he often kept in the past, but he lost control of the fight and Victor Ortiz suffered the consequences.
This fight, however, will be different.
?This will be a fight between a boxer and a mixed martial arts specialist,? Cortez said. ?My role will be to prepare McGregor so that he does not commit any breach of the rules on the day of the fight? He is a fighter who is learning very fast and has previous experience in fights and is moving quite well. The only thing I can say is that it will be an interesting fight.?
