Conor McGregor talks about the unusual format of yesterday’s press conference for the Mayweather super-fight.
Many MMA fans that tuned into yesterday’s Mayweather-McGregor press conference at The Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, were perplexed with the media format and schedule.
Instead of both fighters fielding questions from reporters and jousting back-and-forth on the mic, as is common in the UFC, Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather both took turns to give a speech in front of the audience.
Mayweather clearly came prepared, antagonizing his foe with a WWE-inspired rant, but McGregor, the UFC lightweight champion, didn’t really know what to expect.
Before McGregor and Mayweather took center stage, several figureheads within boxing delivered a speech, including MGM Resorts Entertainment & Sports president Richard Sturm.
Sturm was met with a chorus of boos, delivering one of the most uninspiring, boring promotional speeches in sports history.
McGregor, who will lock horns with Mayweather in a 12-round boxing match on August 26, was baffled by Sturm’s presence onstage.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” McGregor told ESPN shortly after yesterday’s media conference. “The format is a lot different. They were very vague on the details; it was speeches and all that. People were getting up with full speeches and I was like, ‘what the f-ck is this?’ I didn’t even know who they were! Some guy with a grey afro that was talking and I was like, ‘who the f-ck is that?!’
McGregor then switched his attention to Mayweather, calling the boxing great ‘weak’ and ‘frail’ and promising to dismantle him within four rounds.
“As for Floyd, it’s whatever. He’s a small man; he looks frail to me. I see half a fighter. I don’t see a finished product – I see a weak core, small legs. I see a man who would be, and easily will be, dismantled.”
“I believe so,” McGregor said when asked if he could finish Floyd in four rounds. “His little head and my big fist. They don’t go together.”
McGregor and Mayweather will square off for the media for a second time, later today, at the Budweiser Stage in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The press conference kicks off at 5:30 PM ET/2:30 PM PT.