It’s safe to say Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor aren’t Ronda Rousey’s favourite people, with the former-UFC bantamweight women’s champion dismissing both men for being motivated by money.

Claressa Shields – female super middleweight WBC and IBF champion

Unlike Rousey, Claressa Shields is a long-time fan of her compatriot Mayweather. Again, unlike many fans and pundits, McGregor’s “ruthless and reckless” trash-talking in the run-up to the fight made her a fan of McGregor as well. In fact, she thinks the Irishman “should totally be a comedian”.

However, Shields never had any doubt who would win the multi-million dollar matchup.

“I'm going with Mayweather all the way”, she said before the bout. Shields went on to say she felt the only chance McGregor had of winning was if “he lands a lucky punch in the first two rounds”.
As it turns out, that wasn’t far off McGregor’s game plan, as he went in early to try and knock out the undefeated former boxing champion. Mayweather said after the fight that he had anticipated this and just let McGregor tire himself out.

Amanda Nunes – UFC women’s bantamweight champion

Brazilian mixed martial artistAmanda Nunes is currently the one to beat in the UFC women’s bantamweight division. Nunes wasn’t as sure of the outcome as Shields, saying that “McGregor might beat Mayweather”. She also said that “anything can happen”, which is exactly what she found so fascinating about an MMA fighter getting into the square ring with one of the best boxers of all time.

Michelle Waterson UFC Strawweight fighter (Ranked number 6)

Whereas Ricky Hatton didn’t give McGregor a chance, a lot of UFC fighters were more open-minded, with Nunes and Michelle Waterson being prime examples.

Waterson said that it was McGregor’s “creative footwork” that would make for an interesting exchange between the two men. She likened the mismatch to “having a dance partner who’s on a different rhythm to you”, with the thought being that this could throw off Mayweather. And while Waterson said she’d “love for McGregor to win” and “wouldn’t put it past [him]”, she continued, “on any given day, anyone can get rocked”. This seems to echo boxer Shields’ statement about it taking a lucky punch for McGregor to beat his American opponent.
 
Heather Hardy - WBC women’s boxing super middleweight champion and MMA fighter

As both a boxer and an MMA fighter, Heather Hardy is uniquely-placed to understand the differences in the two disciplines. When asked about the challenges facing McGregor as he prepared to step into the boxing ring, Hardy says that the Irishman is “having many of his [tools] taken away”.

When comparing her own foray into MMA, she said that it was “impossible” for McGregor to win because he was going straight in “at the highest boxing level”. Indeed, Hardy would’ve been unlikely to have any success by going straight into a fight with Nunes, for example.