Floyd Mayweather Says He Is Going To Beat Conor McGregor ‘For All The Blacks Around The World’

The Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing superfight was supposed to be a fun bit of combat sports spectacle, but it keeps veering into disappointing racist and homophobic territory. The three-country World Tour had its share of unfortunate moments, including McGregor telling Mayweather to ‘Dance for me, boy!’ and Mayweather calling McGregor a f*ggot. But probably the worst comment that’s come up involved a Jimmy Kimmel Live segment with McGregor, where he referred to Rocky III as the one with “the dancing monkeys in the gym.”

You can see the comments and the scene he’s referring to here:

Mayweather mentioned his displeasure with the comment during the tour, and he expanded on those feelings in a new interview with ESPN.

“I just didn’t like when he called us monkeys,” Floyd said. “I think that was totally disrespect. He called us monkeys. So I didn’t like it. It didn’t push a button to make me jump all up out of my character and go crazy, but I didn’t like it.”

“I just thought about all our different leaders, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. They went on the front line for me and my family and all my loved ones. And like I said before, this stuff still goes on. But I’m strong, smart, patient. And come Aug. 26, I’ll be the same person: smart, strong, patient. And the same way he called us monkeys, we’re gonna see if he say that August 26th.”

“This is for a cause. This is for the American people. This is for all the blacks around the world.”

McGregor never addressed the Jimmy Kimmel Live video itself, which has since been taken off YouTube. That’s not all that surprising considering Kimmel is actually one of 23 celebrities that bought a piece of the UFC when it was sold to Hollywood giant WME-IMG last year. But he did fire back at Mayweather.

“You know the man’s character, you know his history,” McGregor said during the World Tour when Floyd mentioned the ‘monkeys’ comment. “He’s trying to sway the people in his favor. I think it’s a cheap little play.”

With a few weeks remaining before they fight on August 26th, there’s a good chance this only gets uglier.

(via ESPN)

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