Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor will fight in a 12-round boxing match on August 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Showtime PPV. That is a real thing that is actually happening.
After months of teasing a fight and back-and-forth between the retired boxing star and the UFC’s hottest commodity, they actually managed to get a deal done and the date is rapidly approaching. The announcement caused quite a stir on social media, as fight fans got excited about the reality of the super fight between the two biggest stars in combat sports.
While the casual fight fan was excited, there are those that aren’t happy about the matchup, mostly on the boxing side who claim it’s bad for the sport. There are those decrying it as a publicity stunt and a money grab, and they aren’t wrong. It’s absolutely about the money, as has everything Floyd Mayweather has done for the better part of a decade now, but that doesn’t mean it has to be detrimental to the sport of boxing.
After making the official announcement with all of the fight details like weight (154 pounds), glove size (10 ounces), and more on ESPN, Dana White stuck around to discuss the fight with professional talker Stephen A. Smith. Smith is a boxing fanatic and noted the stance of some in the boxing world, namely Oscar De La Hoya, who has railed against the Mayweather-McGregor matchup publicly for weeks. White and Smith both came to a general agreement that, while some in the boxing community might not like it, the fight is what fans want and that should be the goal of combat sports in general.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=NQZvrqatr5M&app=desktop
Smith lavished White with praise for regularly giving fans the big fights they want to see. White and UFC’s insistence on putting together money fights rather than top contender fights is a point of contention for some of the company’s fighters and hardcore fans, but it’s hard to argue against Smith’s point. White said that his biggest issue with De La Hoya’s comments about Mayweather-McGregor was that Oscar had asked fans not to buy the fight.
White thinks that Mayweather and McGregor can happen and people can buy that fight and also watch the other great boxing and MMA fights happening this year as well, like Canelo-GGG which is promoted by De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Smith and White both came to the consensus that Mayweather-McGregor gives fans what they want and that should be the ultimate goal of boxing and combat sports.
Smith noted the long history in boxing of fight negotiations getting drawn out to where a fight either doesn’t happen or happens far too late for it to be as good as it should have been — the most notable recent example being Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao. The tide seems to be turning in boxing, though, as Canelo and Golovkin made the deal within the timetable originally established (the end of 2017). Hopefully that continues and we see more super fights with guys in their primes, but alongside those bouts there’s still always room for a big time money grab like Mayweather-McGregor. Both can live together in harmony, even if the latter is far more intriguing for what will be said out of the ring compared to in the ring.
As for what will happen in the ring on August 26, there’s little doubt that Mayweather will win. He’s a massive favorite (most sportsbooks have opened him at -1100 to win) and most every pundit agrees that Floyd will roll through Conor in a landslide. ESPN brought Chael Sonnen and Teddy Atlas on for both the UFC and boxing perspectives on the matchup, and both agreed that Mayweather will win.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is0HhXCMHmk&feature=youtu.be
Atlas said there’s a better chance of Donald Trump getting a candlelight dinner with Nancy Pelosi than McGregor winning, and likened it to a comic book movie. Sonnen agreed, but noted that it will be fun and sometimes it’s OK for sports to be fun and give people a matchup they want, even if a not competitive one.
This fight will be highly entertaining in the build up because both of these guys are the best talkers in combat sports. Once in the ring, it likely will look like most of Mayweather’s recent fights as he picks apart his opponent with superior boxing skill and the best defensive work we’ve ever seen in the boxing ring. That said, it still can be fun and still doesn’t have to be considered bad for the sport.
