'Floyd will beat him up so badly, they'll stop the fight'

Conor McGregor's former sparring partner has opened up about their controversial sessions and why he released the unedited footage.

McGregor stepped into the square circle with former IBO welterweight champion Chris van Heerden last year to work on his boxing skills when rumours of a mega-fight with Mayweather first emerged.

However Van Heerden claimed the footage of their sparring session released by McGregor's camp (which you can see below) was heavily edited and left out large chunks that made McGregor look bad:

"When you have to Cut & Edit a video clip to putting pieces together to look Good It show me your Real Character #ISleepPeaceful #DoYou?," Van Heerden posted on Twitter at the time.

Van Heerden recently went one step further and released the unedited footage, which makes for bad viewing if you think McGregor can beat Mayweather.

Watch the unedited version in the player at the top of the page

"People telling me Mayweather will have his hands full trying to land on McGregor - STOP IT! I respect McGregor BUT I aint Floyd and I landed," the South African tweeted alongside the new video.

"The 1's hating on me REMEMBER Conor's team released edit footage FIRST they leaked it! What i do now is standing up for boxing/boxers #fair."

Van Heerden has since opened up about the furore in an exclusive chat with Yahoo Sports combat expert Kevin Iole.

"I was approached by the gym owners and I made it very clear that I didn't want any footage out there," he said.

RIDICULOUS: Boxing legend slams Mayweather-McGregor fight

"I was out of shape, I'd just come off holiday and I was just trying to help Conor. He didn't pay me one dime, not one dollar. He just asked me if I could move around with him, because at that time, he was getting ready for the rematch with Nate Diaz and he wanted a big southpaw to work with.

"Me being from South Africa and coming to America, I knew the first thing people were going to ask was, 'Who is this guy Conor is working with?' That was around the time the whole Mayweather-Conor thing got serious. I saw the marketing aspect of it, but Conor didn't pay me and I helped him. And that first occasion was beautiful."

Life changed for van Heerden after the second, three days later. A video crew showed up with McGregor, who at that time held the UFC featherweight title.

Van Heerden again said he reiterated that he didn't want video of the session publicly released because he was still working his way into shape.

"The gym owners asked me if they could film it and I'd made it very clear my position, that I didn't want anything out there," he said.

"This wasn't about me beating him up or him beating me up or whatever. I was just getting back in the gym and I was just helping Conor.

"An hour later, my phone started crashing. I looked at my phone and I saw this footage on TMZ. I asked the gym owners and they said, 'We asked Conor because it would be good for the gym.'"

He wasn't thrilled, but he was dealing with it. A few days later, though, van Heerden was angry. He said McGregor released edited footage of the sparring session that van Heerden says didn't reflect what happened.

It was made to look as if McGregor was beating van Heerden up, and it didn't sit too well with van Heerden.

"You can imagine the press: Everyone was killing me," van Heerden said.

"I'm from South Africa, sir, and I came to America hoping to follow my dreams. Conor put that edited video out and it made me look bad. I told him, 'I don’t appreciate that. I was doing you a favor, because I'm not your sparring partner and you didn't pay me. I did you a favor because you asked me to help you.'"

So van Heerden has released the entire footage of their sparring session in an attempt to clear the record, so to speak.

And while chasing a high-profile fight of his own, van Heerden hasn't held back his opinion of McGregor's boxing skills. McGregor has never had an amateur or pro bout and the consensus is that Mayweather will win their fight easily.

"The bad aspect for me is his precision and his timing. He's got a good eye. He's all over the floor. His footwork is not good, but he's a mobile guy. As I said, he's got a good eye and a good counter left hand."

He said while he respects McGregor, he sees little reason to believe he has a chance against Mayweather.

"What I think is going to happen in this fight is that Conor McGregor is going to box with Floyd and try to prove to people that he is a boxer," van Heerden said.

"That is the biggest mistake he can make because you cannot outbox Floyd Mayweather. You just can't. He will make you look silly. He'll make you miss. He'll literally make you look silly.

"Floyd is going to hit him and Floyd is going to catch him over and over and over. Floyd will make him miss so badly and I think Conor is going to get so frustrated that he'll let his hands drop and come with his mixed martial artist's power.

"He'll drop the hands and Floyd will beat him up so badly, they'll stop the fight."

More from Kevin Iole