If a recent report is true, Floyd Mayweather has apparently signed the contract to face UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor later this year.
According to Boxing247.com, Mayweather has apparently canceled a scheduled promotional tour in Africa, where he was supposed to visit Ghana before Accra for two days because he has signed to fight McGregor and begun a serious camp:
“The Mayweather Tour has been postponed because Mayweather has signed the contract for the McGregor Fight and serious training has started,” said a statement from the organisers in Accra.
“His visit will be after the fight. But the World Title Eliminator between Obodai Sai and Walter Kautondokwa will go ahead as scheduled,” in reference to the clash between WBO rated number 12 middleweight, Sai of Ghana and Namibia’s undefeated WBO rated number 8, Kautondokwa for the WBO Africa Middleweight title as well.
More news about the fight made headlines yesterday when word came that Mayweather was expected to reserve an August 26 date for a professional boxing event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas during this week’s (Wed., June 14, 2017) Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) meeting, but a report from The Los Angeles Times (via Yahoo! Sports) revealed that Mayweather had retracted that date.
A new one could be decided upon according to NAC executive director Bob Bennett, who revealed neither fighter had been licensed to fight in the state of Nevada yet:
“Is anything done? No,” Bennett said. “Do I believe the fight will probably come to fruition? Yes,” Bennett said.
So it’s more speculation from the combat sports world on a fight that would almost assuredly be one of if not the most lucrative bouts in history, with projections set to be in the billions for overall revenue as both Mayweather and McGregor aim for paydays over $100 million.
The fight has gone through a rollercoaster of foreshadowing and unclear string of news reports, including one that said UFC President Dana White was no longer negotiating the bout, a report he not surprisingly shot down rapidly. The fact that Mayweather was supposedly set to request an August 6 date at the MGM grand before canceling it only casts further doubt on the official future of the fight, yet McGregor did recently post that a big announcement would be coming this week on Instagram.
While it’s impossible to know what’s really going on until one or both of the fighters officially confirm it, along with Mayweather Promotions and the UFC, the fact thaT Mayweather recently stepped back into the ring for six rounds of sparring with lightweight boxer Devin Haney, in conjunction with the cancelation of his African tour, do suggest “Money” may be taking the fight more seriously, and that could be because he has indeed signed the contract.
That would put the fight on for a potential September/October date, and if and when it does happen, the ramifications for a struggling UFC could be extremely heavy. On one hand, McGregor facing an opponent whom many feel is the best boxer of all-time will most certainly boost the overall scope and exposure of the UFC and MMA as a whole, but if he gets embarrassed as most are predicting him to, the sport will suffer a crushing loss if McGregor does decide to retire after making a monstrous payday he never would in the octagon.
In any case, the stage is set for one of combat sports’ most polarizing and controversial crossover matches, and it will draw some absolutely huge numbers despite the tentative opinion it’s received among hardcore fight fans.
All it needs is an official date to end the speculation.
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