If you thought the hype surrounding the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match on August 26th was a bit overblown already, wait until next week when the World Tour kicks off. Mayweather and McGregor are set to hit three countries over four days, starting on Tuesday July 11th in Los Angeles and finishing Friday July 14th in London.
Just like the fight, no one knows exactly what to expect from the events, and that includes UFC president Dana White. Following a tumultuous UFC 213 weekend that saw his main event fall out hours before the show started, he made one prediction.
“It’s going to be a f**king s**t show,” he said with a laugh. “An absolute s**t show. I dunno man. It’s going to be crazy.”
That was in response to a reporter questioning whether Mayweather and McGregor would continue their trend of showing up for press conferences late, sometime by hours. With both men famous for the behavior and neither wanting to sit around and wait for the other, there is a chance the events could devolve into the wrong kind of spectacle. And Dana White will have the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) seat in the house for all of it.
“I’ll be at all of them, I’m going on the whole tour,” he said. “The way this thing’s laying out, Mayweather’s team is putting this thing together and I think it’s going to be a hybrid of the boxing press conferences and UFC press conferences. I dunno, I think it’s going to be more like a boxing press conference than it’ll be like our press conferences.”
“You know how mine are. No bulls**t. We walk in and we sit down and ‘What’s up, who has the first question?’ and we get it rolling. I think there’s going to be a lot more bulls**t at these ones. I’m going to sit there with a mic and when you ask me a question I will answer it. I’m not going to get up and make any speeches or do anything like that. I think Conor and I will come in, Conor and I will sit down. We’ll answer questions when asked questions. I think that the rest of the people that are gonna come in, I think there’s going to be a lot of people that come in and talk and, y’know, a lot of speeches.”
If that sounds a little boring, don’t worry. We’ve never experienced a Conor McGregor press conference that hasn’t become a wild ride of trash talking and belt stealing. Floyd Mayweather is no stranger to making controversial statements either, and he’s also never faced an opponent willing to get just as crazy during promotional events as McGregor. All in all, it should be a very interesting four days. And if all goes according to plans, it will set Mayweather vs. McGregor up to become the biggest combat sports event in history.
