MMA Legend Bas Rutten Predicts McGregor Upsets Mayweather

Bas Rutten is like that really cool uncle of MMA. He’s been everywhere, he’s done everything, and when you catch up with them, rest assured it’s going to be a blast and he’s going to have an awesome story to tell you. With Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fighting in mere days, the guys over at Submission Radio got Bas Rutten on to talk about the historic event. El Guapo himself is rooting for McGregor all the way, and he thinks he can get the job done. Of course, we get treated to a tale from his past that relates to the situation.

“Conor’s gonna knock him out within four rounds. That’s what I’m gonna say. I’m gonna stick with it. I want my corner with with Conor. And I know skills-wise [Mayweather is better], I know all that. Trust me, I’ve been fighting for a long time. You can call me an idiot, whatever they want. I’m just talking about all the mental aspects and everything there is. And if me committing to Conor is gonna give him a little bit of extra power mentally, so be it. I hope a lot of people are gonna do it because boy do I want to see Mayweather lose.”

“I’m telling you, Conor’s gonna knock him out! He’s gonna knock him out within four rounds because he said so, and every time when he says so, he’s pretty much always on the money. So I’m gonna trust him this time. I’m gonna say, “you know what, I want you to knock him out,” because that would be the best thing to ever happen for MMA. And if he would lose it would never be a bad thing for MMA, you know. But the other way around, oh that’s a big no-no for Mayweather. Mayweather’s gonna have an insane amount of pressure. It’s better to fight a world champion, another world champion in boxing. I use this example always. I was gonna fight Kimo Leopoldo in my last fight and he tested positive for steroids like three days before. So they called this new guy in, 265 pounds, big guy, Indian guy. And Don Frye just called me, he said, “listen, I hit him with everything I had and I couldn’t knock him out, so be ready for plan B”. I said, “it’s alright, I got it covered, don’t worry about it”. But you know, at that moment I would have rather fought Fedor Emelianenko – this was in 2006 when he was still on top – than to fight this guy, because anything can happen. If the guy makes a stupid backfist, a weird move and I have a little cut above my eye, then they can stop the fight and I’m gonna lose the fight. So I’d rather lose against the world champ than to have somebody [unknown beat me]. It’s like fighting a girl. That’s what I’ve been saying. Mayweather, if he wins, well he’s supposed to win. If he loses, it’s a really bad thing.”

You know, Bas Rutten has some books out, but not a memoir. Think about a book containing all of Rutten’s glorious stories from the glory days of mixed martial arts? That’d be something to put on your Amazon wish list. Until then, we just have to search out great appearances like this.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/24/2017.