At the end of August, following the Conor McGregor – Floyd Mayweather fight, Michael Phelps jokingly tweeted at McGregor, taunting him to race in the pool.
Following up on that, NBCSports reported that Phelps delved into some details about this potential race, though he confirmed that his original joke, and the race proposal, was all in jest.
“I said it as a joke. If he wants to swim, I don’t care. I’ll race him,” Phelps said, according to The National in the United Arab Emirates. “If we did it in a year, and I trained for a year, or even six months, I could probably go 48 seconds if I had to. I don’t see him breaking a minute. So I could probably beat him with a 50-meter head start.
“I would definitely exercise the option to have a conversation if he wants to swim.”
Six months of training = a 48 second 100m free for the GOAT? It might be the closest we’ll get to Phelps coming back to the sport and racing again, but he did say that McGregor has not yet replied to Phelps’ August 29th tweet asking him to race.
Do a 10k vs Usain Bolt
McGregor with 6 months of training could surely break a minute. A year and he breaks 56. The guy could afford private lessons 6 days a week with some *very* competent coaches. I’m not saying he’d be anywhere near Phelps, but he is incredibly athletic, tenacious, and rich.
With a Mizuno and all that clear water he’d be swimming in, he could probably go 48 now.
Man I hope all that McGregor talk doesn’t take away anything from phelp’s tokyo 2020 training
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWJ7SmOVUO8 in case anyone forgot that Phelps and Shaq raced…
I’d bet on McGregor to be a much better swimmer after training for 6-12mo than Phelps would be a fighter after the same amount of time.
Eh, maybe that one could go either way. The Bolt-Thorpe article got me thinking about it and Usain Bolt would definitely be a better swimmer than Phelps a runner, though.
He obviously meant it as a joke, are people taking him seriously
Phelps would go a 44.69 (not 48 in the 100lcm free), re: the long, long, looooong taper his body so desperately needed…
Seriously…..I think Phelps could dip under 49 seconds (48.99). From everything I’ve heard, he’s still super-fit and has kept his feel-for-the-water.
Do you think he didn’t taper enough for Rio? And that’s why he wasn’t as fast as he and many others expected?
He had shoulder issues before Rio and needed 2 cortisone shots. Also, he had really bad turns there, his 200 fly with good turns could have been 1:52 if it wasn’t for those turns, also his 200 im breast finish was really bad. He also was 31, but since he almost injured himself for Rio no way he’s doing Tokyo.