Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor reached an agreement with the BIG3 basketball league for use of the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada, for their Aug. 26 fight.
On Tuesday, TMZ Sports received confirmation of the deal from BIG3 co-founders Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, who said they received a “generous offer” to give up the venue. The league will instead host its championship game at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The financial coup for the new basketball organization, which features former NBA stars such as Allen Iverson and Chauncey Billups, comes after the undefeated boxer and the UFC sensation announced their cross-sport encounter without an arena deal in place.
“We are grateful to MGM Resorts, Mayweather Promotions and UFC for presenting us with a generous offer that we could not refuse, ensuring that our fans will have the best experience possible at our BIG3 Championship Finals at the MGM Grand Garden Arena,” Ice Cube and Kwatinetz said.
UFC President Dana White said he appreciated “their willingness to work together on bringing the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight to T-Mobile Arena,” per TMZ Sports.
Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press noted the arena deal comes just as Mayweather and McGregor, two of the best self-promoting athletes in the sports world, get ready to embark on a four-city promotional tour this week.
Mayweather, a five-division world champion who owns an unblemished 49-0 career record, is unsurprisingly a heavy favorite. He’s listed with minus-675 odds (4-27), while his MMA counterpart checks in as a plus-500 (50-1) underdog, according to OddsShark.
It’s the American boxer’s first fight since a September 2015 win over Andre Berto, which was followed by a brief retirement. McGregor’s last UFC bout came last November, which ended in a knockout of Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight championship.
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