24/08/2017 - 15:41:57
Rory McIlroy has said he fears Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather are laughing at the public behind the scenes, writes Ciara Phelan.
McIlroy voiced his concerns at his own press conference ahead of this week's Northern Trust.
When asked if he thought McGregor could beat Mayweather, the former world number one said he believed the Crumlin native could.
"Certainly. All I've done is follow the build up to this thing. All I do is watch YouTube videos of Conor McGregor," he said.
"I'm intrigued. He talks a good game. If you just listen to his press conferences and what he says, you would think that this guy, he's the one with the 50-0 boxing record."
McIlroy who has been pictured meeting McGregor said although he admires the MMA fighter, some of the stuff McGregor does wouldn't be his cup of tea.
"It's amazing. I'm a big admirer of him. He talks about visualization and the law of attraction and all this stuff that he believes in it and he vocalizes it, and he has the courage to say what he thinks. I'm a believer in that stuff, and I'm a big advocate of that," he said.
"And some of the stuff he does wouldn't be my cup of tea, but he believes 100% in himself and he believes he's going to go out there on Saturday night and shock the world."
McIlroy also said he wondered if the two men were privately laughing while publicly just putting on a performance.
"I'm interested just to see how it all plays out, but I just fear that they do all this trash-talking and they go behind the scenes and they are having a laugh," he said.
"We are all buying into it and they are like, can you believe these people believe this?
"It's amazing, like we were talking about, imagine McGregor knocks him out in the first couple of rounds.
"I just don't know what that zero on Mayweather's record is worth, and that's the thing. That's his legacy."
McGregor will face Mayweather in his professional debut on Saturday night.