The will they / won’t they surrounding the Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor boxing match continues … not so much questioning whether the fight happens, though. That’s pretty much guaranteed. Currently the big question is whether rumors of an August 26th date for the match are legit. The potential date leaked early in the week when Mayweather Promotions filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to reserve the date for a non-specific event at the MGM Grand. But then Mayweather’s people reportedly retracted the request soon after.
Well, that last move may have just been a fake out. According to the LA Times, Mayweather’s people once again reached out to the Nevada commission late Tuesday night to have the request reinstated, and on Wednesday the commission approved the date.
There’s still a lot of work to be done though before the fight can be announced. Despite rumors to the contrary, there’s been no confirmation that a contract between Floyd and Conor has been signed. And there’s a lot of contentious issues that need to be worked out to get to that, including purse split, glove size, referee choice, and we imagine dozens of other small issues. When a fight is worth half a billion dollars, there’s a certainty to it happening, but everyone wants to make sure they’re getting theirs.
Going for August 28th date already cuts into some of that money. It would force the fight to take place at the 17,000 seat MGM Grand Arena rather than the new larger 20,000 T-Mobile Arena, which is already booked for the Big3 tournament on that date.
But on the plus side, it gets Mayweather vs. McGregor out and in front of fans before Golden Boy Promotions holds a highly anticipated (and much more legitimate) Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight on September 16th. Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya has already been vocal in calling Mayweather vs. McGregor a farce of a fight that will suck. Holding their fight before Oscar is an excellent way to hear less criticism while sticking it to De La Hoya, something Floyd Mayweather certainly wouldn’t be against.
For now, we’ve got this date officially held by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It’s not definitive, but short of it being a complete deke out or publicity play (not something the fight really needs), it certainly looks like the parties involved want August 28th to be Mayweather vs. McGregor day.
