Boxing trainer Angelo Reyes has a straight forward explanation for Floyd Mayweather’s walkout gear, and why he chose to wear it for this fight.
When Floyd Mayweather Jr. first stepped out of the shadows to make his walk to the ring against Conor McGregor in the main event of their massive PPV spectacle, fans were greeted by an unexpected sight. While no stranger to flashy entrances or even the occasional costume, few expected to see ‘Money’ walk to the ring with a ski-mask over his face.
The jokes ran wild on social media, of course. Was he hiding from the IRS, had he joined ANTIFA, was he preparing for a lucha libre match? Maybe he’d just escaped from someone’s sex dungeon? But, the truth is apparently no more serious, as longtime boxing coach Angelo Reyes explained for the Fight Society podcast (transcript via MMA Weekly).
“To us in the boxing culture, we were kind of laughing about it because it’s Floyd Mayweather’s ode to the movie ‘Dead Presidents.’ Where he put the ski mask on because it’s a bank robbery,” Reyes explained. “Basically he was saying it was a heist. Like Conor actually believed he could beat Floyd Mayweather and all that happened was he got fooled into the biggest pay-per-view, the biggest payday opportunity of all time.
“That’s why he put on the ski mask, which I thought was pretty awesome.”
Of course that asks the question, if Conor McGregor stands to make as much as $100 million for his fight with Mayweather, was it the Irishman who got robbed, or just the fans who showed up to watch him get the win?
For people who actually saw the fight, the general opinion seems to be that it was an entertaining, enjoyable spectacle. Much more so than the Pacquiao bout that came with the same price tag. The seemingly large number of people who paid for the bout and couldn’t see it due to various technical issues may have a different opinion, however.