The mayhem that is the Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour concluded its fourth and final stop earlier today (Fri. July 14, 2017) from London, England. In their final confrontation before the weigh-ins for their clash next month, “The Notorious One” and “Money” got their final opportunities to trash-talk their way into their opponents minds before […]
The mayhem that is the Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour concluded its fourth and final stop earlier today (Fri. July 14, 2017) from London, England.
In their final confrontation before the weigh-ins for their clash next month, “The Notorious One” and “Money” got their final opportunities to trash-talk their way into their opponents minds before they strap on the boxing gloves and go toe-to-toe. Yesterday the press tour found its way to Brooklyn, New York, where Mayweather made a rather odd move against his Irish counterpart.
Mayweather shouted “form Voltron” and his body guards (who won’t be passing any USADA tests anytime soon) surrounded McGregor and blocked him away as Mayweather walked off. As expected, McGregor addressed the incident during today’s press conference in London as he verbally attacked the 49-0 boxer’s “juicehead monkeys”:
“What’s with these two juice-heads you got?” McGregor asked. “What the f*ck was that yesterday? He jumped up and he shouted ‘Voltron Power Rangers!’ And these f*cking juiceheads walk up and stand in front of me. Mate, 40 years of age! Get your f*cking sh*t together, my god!.
“You juicehead turkey, and you juicehead turkey (points at body guards). Look where you’re standing now you two f*cking b*tches! You’ll do f*ck all! Juicehead monkey, juicehead monkey (points again).”
Mayweather and McGregor will finally get the opportunity to settle their differences inside the squared circle live on Showtime pay-per-view (PPV) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada next month (Sat. August 26, 2017).
Nobody enjoyed their time on the road more than Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.
Maybe in the end that was part of the problem.
The “world tour” designed to drum up hype for the pair’s August 26 boxing match wrapped up Friday in London the same way…
Nobody enjoyed their time on the road more than Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.
Maybe in the end that was part of the problem.
The “world tour” designed to drum up hype for the pair’s August 26 boxing match wrapped up Friday in London the same way it began Tuesday in Los Angeles—with Mayweather and McGregor standing on stage screaming obscenities in each other’s faces.
After four press conferences in four days in four different cities, there wasn’t much left to do. We’d already seen everything these two showmen had to offer. In that way, the initial publicity push leading up to next month’s mega-bout in Las Vegas certainly didn’t disappoint.
But it also didn’t really surprise.
The verbal barbs between Mayweather and McGregor remained predictably lowbrow throughout, but—while chaos eternally loomed just off stage—their traveling circus ultimately came off as contrived. Even as they preened and prodded and called each other every nasty name they could think of, it was plain to see there was no real animosity here.
“He could have rode off into the sunset 49-0,” McGregor told the London crowd. “Instead, this is my first time in a boxing ring, and in six weeks I run boxing. How the f–k did they let me roll up in here? They got f–king greedy, that’s how.”
Mayweather just laughed in response.
Indeed, when they finally make it to the ring at T-Mobile Arena next month, we can rest assured the competitive fires will be fully stoked. But this? This was just marketing—with Mayweather and McGregor starring as partners in crime.
“You’re the student. I’m the f–king teacher,” Mayweather told McGregor during his time on the mic Friday. “August 26 I’m going to take you to school.”
Aside from a brief scuffle between their two camps at Thursday’s event in Brooklyn, the fighters never really touched each other during this junket. Near the end of his remarks in London, McGregor rubbed the top of Mayweather’s head with his palm, but the boxer just chuckled at the gesture.
And so it went on. And on. And on.
Through these four events, which routinely started late and just as often dragged in the middle, neither guy succeeded in provoking much of a response from the other. In the end, the vibe was more like a series of celebrity roasts than an airing of real grievances. The back-and-forth flame wars played like banter between the leads in an awkward buddy comedy more than two men embroiled in a blood feud.
As McGregor stalked around the stage in Toronto on Wednesday and implored the crowd to chant “F–k the Mayweathers,” Floyd and his team roared with laughter. When Mayweather tossed handfuls of cash in the air over McGregor’s head at the Barclay’s Center to show that he had money to burn or that he owned McGregor—or something like that—the Irishman used it as a photo op:
Even when McGregor strayed over lines of racial sensitivity and repeatedly harangued Mayweather to “Dance for me, boy,” the boxer and his entourage only grinned at each other like they knew it was coming. And conspiracy-minded fight fans immediately began to speculate: Maybe they did?
And really, Conor and Floyd have no real reason to be mad at each other.
Especially for McGregor, this fight represents the opportunity of a lifetime. After more than two years of rumor and conjecture, the cocksure mixed martial artist has finally landed the opponent who will set his family up for generations. McGregor has already said he could bank $100 million for taking on Mayweather—a notable pay increase from the reported $3 million purse he earned in his rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
“I get to quadruple my net worth for half a fight?” McGregor said in London. “Sign me up.”
Likewise, there was no other adversary in the conventional boxing landscape who could bank Mayweather as much money as McGregor. The greatest pugilist of his generation now has the chance to end his brief retirement and collect a hefty payday for what he surely expects will be a light night of work.
So, yeah, who can blame them if during all this nose-to-nose gum-bumping it occasionally felt as though they could barely keep straight faces.
Aside from Thursday’s train wreck in Brooklyn, the two fighters managed to mostly keep things from going off the rails. McGregor started on shaky footing in L.A. but quickly regained the form UFC fans have grown accustomed to from their lightweight champion since he burst on the scene in 2013.
Meanwhile, Mayweather consistently showed why he’s been a top draw in boxing for years.
This was two of combat sports’ best trash talkers working in tandem to promote an event that will make each of them hundreds of millions of dollars. Every time Mayweather called McGregor a “bitch” or an “eejit” and every time McGregor poked fun at Mayweather’s age, fashion sense or reported trouble with the IRS, they were really just stuffing money in each other’s pockets.
Most everything here was all in good fun.
You could see it on the face of Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, who—dressed to the nines nearly every step of the way—arguably laughed loudest at McGregor’s best lines.
You could see it in the Cheshire cat grin on UFC President Dana White—whose epic sunburn and thunderous introductions of McGregor were among the unsung stars of these events.
You could see it on the grimace of Showtime exec Stephen Espinoza, who, even during McGregor’s profane rants against him and his company, maintained an expression that said he’d sit there as long as it took to cash the checks from this pay-per-view.
And you could see it in the performances of Mayweather and McGregor themselves.
Credit these two men for going out there day after day to sell a grudge where none likely exists. With the bout itself expected to be a dominant victory for Mayweather, this fight had to be sold on the singular nature of the matchup and on doctoring-up some emotion.
Even if behind the scenes they’re laughing all the way to the bank.
UFC star Conor McGregor has told Floyd Mayweather he would be “dead in twenty seconds” if he fought the Irishman in a real fight.
He made the comments during the first leg of the press tour to hype their upcoming bout on August 26. The UFC uploaded&nbs…
UFC star Conor McGregor has told Floyd Mayweather he would be “dead in twenty seconds” if he fought the Irishman in a real fight.
He made the comments during the first leg of the press tour to hype their upcoming bout on August 26. The UFC uploaded video of the testy exchange (around the 9:09 mark) (warning: video contains NSFW language):
The two will come face-to-face four times during the press tour, which will travel from Los Angeles to Toronto, Brooklyn and London.
As expected, the Notorious didn’t hold back during the first stop in L.A., making numerous references to Mayweather’s supposed tax problems. According to legal website Law360 (h/t ESPN.com’sDarren Rovell), Money has asked for a reprieve on unpaid taxes from 2015 until after the fight.
Per radio presenter Michael Stets, Mayweather took the many references to heart:
While Money is the overwhelming favourite to win the bout―he has a perfect 49-0 record in the ring and has faced multiple future Hall of Famers, whereas McGregor has no professional boxing experience―most pundits would likely agree the Notorious would fare better in a “real fight.”
The UFC lightweight champion has the fearsome power and standup game to go with solid ground work, even if he’s better known for his knockouts. Whether that power will translate to the boxing ring remains to be seen.
Floyd Mayweather has kept surprisingly quiet following the announcement of his August 26 showdown with UFC superstar Conor McGregor. While the Irishman has tweeted and posted subtle jabs at Mayweather, the boxing legend finally broke his silence this week after releasing video of him training for the McGregor bout. Mayweather brought TMZ Sports along for […]
Mayweather brought TMZ Sports along for a four-hour training session in Los Angeles and gave fight fans their first glimpse of “Money” as he prepares for Conor McGregor:
Mayweather said he’d beat McGregor and make his usual monstrous payday, noting that even if he did get hurt, he wouldn’t have a bad night:
“I’ll beat McGregor, even if he hurts me” Mayweather said. “I could get a black eye, I could get a bloody nose, I may have a bad day at gym, but at the end of the day, I never have a bad payday or a bad night under the lights.”
Mayweather appeared a bit rusty in the video as he slowly hit the heavy bag and sparred lightly with a partner for the cameras. The all-time boxing great retired after compiling a 49-0 record following his victories over Manny Pacquiao and Andre Berto.
When the 40-year-old great steps into the ring with two-time UFC champion Conor McGregor, he will have had a two-year layoff from the sport. Most still give him an overwhelming chance to beat McGregor, who’s never fought a professional boxing bout, so some may consider this training video to be an intended response to the video of McGregor getting worked by former IBO lightweight champion Chris van Heerden in sparring.
McGregor most recently took the lightweight belt from former champ Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205. Prior to that, “The Notorious” split victories with Nate Diaz before knocking out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to capture the featherweight belt back at UFC 194, but he’s stepping into “Money’s” world here, and the only clear edge he has is in age.
With the highly-anticipated bout just two months away, Mayweather still has time to get into fighting shape, but if this training video is any indication, his retirement may have set him back a few steps.
What do you think of Mayweather’s training video? Does he look like the same man who bested 49 boxers in a row? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!
Conor McGregor could possibly be stepping into the the boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather Jr. later this year and the combat sports world has mixed reviews on the subject. One man who thinks McGregor not only should take on Mayweather inside the ring, but also pursue a career in the sport, is mixed martial arts […]
Conor McGregor could possibly be stepping into the the boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather Jr. later this year and the combat sports world has mixed reviews on the subject.
One man who thinks McGregor not only should take on Mayweather inside the ring, but also pursue a career in the sport, is mixed martial arts (MMA) coach Mark Henry. Henry knows first-hand what McGregor is capable of, as he dispatched his star pupil Eddie Alvarez in the main event of UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden to win the UFC lightweight title.
Henry recently spoke to MMA Junkie regarding McGregor’s pursuit of Mayweather inside the squared circle, and stated that he believes the Irishman could make way more money in one boxing fight than he would in ’10 or 11 with the UFC’ (quotes via MMA Mania):
“Look, if I was Conor, I would definitely pursue the boxing, because he can make more in one fight than in 10 or 11 with the UFC,” Henry said. “But, while he’s doing it, they should definitely make another 155-pound belt, because it would be ridiculous if they didn’t.”
In addition to that, Henry also claimed that McGregor is one of the best boxers he has ever laid his eyes on, and believes “The Notorious One” has a shot against Mayweather in the first two rounds of the fight. After that, however, it’s going to be a rough night for the UFC lightweight champ:
“Conor is one of the best boxers I’ve ever seen – ever. From his precision to his power to his speed, and I think he has a shot in the first two rounds,” Henry added. “Because Mayweather, like a lot of boxers do when they’re sparring MMA guys, he may not think he’s that good.
“He might not realize how fast Conor is, and you’ve got to remember that Conor is going to be taller, longer, 13 years younger, and a southpaw. Early on, I’d give him a chance of doing some damage. But after that, it’s not going to be too good (for McGregor).”
No agreement for a bout is in place quite yet, as of this writing. Recently, however, it was announced by UFC President Dana White that McGregor’s side of the negotiations have been completed and all that remains is to sit down and negotiate with Mayweather and manager Al Haymon.
Mayweather is know for being difficult to come to an agreement with at the negotiation table, but he did recently state that he believes the fight between him and the MMA star would happen eventually.
Instagram
McGregor has already begun training for the potential contest and took to Twitter to call “Money” out and and tell him to ‘sign his end.’ Although some significant progress has been made to making the superfight happen, this is still only the beginning of the potential fight’s journey.
On Monday night, UFC president Dana White and his promotion’s lightweight champion Conor McGregor announced that they’d struck a deal on the sharing of their side of a fight purse generated by a boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather. Normally, …
On Monday night, UFC president Dana White and his promotion’s lightweight champion Conor McGregor announced that they’d struck a deal on the sharing of their side of a fight purse generated by a boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather. Normally, that would be the easy part of any negotiation—after all, McGregor is under contract with the UFC—but the stakes involved and the co-promotion ensured it was not easy.
The match promises to be one of the richest in combat sports history, and confident in that knowledge and his role in such a mega-event, McGregor played hardball with the UFC, sidelining himself for several months with the understanding that the UFC needed his services as a cash-generator.
It worked, and in doing so, he has changed the game.
With Monday’s announcement, he has accomplished the seemingly impossible by getting UFC brass to co-promote a bout with another entity, something that Randy Couture and others tried several times over the years with no success.
Whether McGregor gets the fight now—still no sure thing with a hard negotiation with The Money Team looming—he’s already fundamentally altered the fighter/promoter dynamic to bend in his direction. He’s also become the most powerful fighter MMA has seen.
Should both sides reach terms, a fight with Mayweather will only increase McGregor’s stardom, leverage and strength.
Joining me to discuss this ongoing saga and developing story is Bleacher Report Lead MMA Writer Chad Dundas.
Mike Chiapppetta: Chad, it’s starting to actually seem like we might be seeing this. This crazy long shot of a co-promotion. This bizarre spectacle of capitalism. This circus of the century.
I will admit to being one who had extreme doubtsabout the ability of all parties involved to pull this off. I thought egos and purse splits would get in the way. And I have to also admit that I thought getting Dana White & Co. to sign off on it would be the harder negotiation of the two.
With that out of the way, there is a real path to this fight happening.
Let’s be honest. There is no other way Mayweather can make this kind of money again. He’s 40 years old and he’s been out of the game for nearly two years. His last fight, against Andre Berto, sold about a half-million pay-per-views, according to ESPN.com.
But we’re less interested in Mayweather than we are in McGregor, only because of what this will mean going forward, both for him and for the UFC.
In its efforts at a cash-grab, the UFC might have ceded power that it can never recover. The promotion has always emphasized the brand first, so what happens when McGregor goes outside the brand, outside the sport and draws a bigger audience than anything the UFC has ever produced?
What happens when he proves that at least right now, he is bigger than the brand? Because that’s what he’s on the way to doing.
Will he be content to go back to the UFC and live within their current arrangement? Remember, this is a man who has openly and repeatedly spoken of co-promoting with the UFC, and pretty soon, he may be doing just that. Pretty soon, he may come to the realization that he doesn’t need them at all, that he—like Mayweather—can do his own thing and collect the lion’s share of the cash haul he creates.
I don’t even think it matters whether he wins or loses. The vast majority of the combat sports world takes it as a given that he will lose, yet we want to see it anyway. Why? Because of the star power and spectacle. And that’s not something that will dim now, not this early in his career.
Which makes me wonder: Is the UFC making a mistake by bucking its own system here? For years, it has resisted this very thing for a reason. Chad, do you think this will have reverberations past McGregor and through the roster, or is this just one hell of a headache it’ll have on its hands for as long as McGregor remains signed with the UFC?
Chad Dundas: It’s a marvel, Mike, to consider what McGregor has pulled off here. He’s singlehandedly convinced the UFC to throw away more than 15 years of complete autonomy—once arguably its cardinal value—to secure this fight. Even if Mayweather and his Money Team never agree to terms, McGregor has already triumphed in yet another big battle against his own fight company bosses.
And this one is a doozy.
If he can get the UFC to agree to let him compete outside the Octagon, in a boxing ring, in a fight he will surely lose, he can get it to agree to anything.
It’s remarkable when you consider that for the last decade and a half, White and former UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta ruled the MMA world with such utter impunity. Their near-monopoly over the industry and iron-fisted management style succeeded in keeping nearly the entire roster of fighters in check for much of this sport’s modern history.
Then McGregor came along and smashed that mold beyond all recognition.
That’s a credit to him and him alone. I’m not sure any other MMA fighter will ever have the savvy, skills and hutzpah to take the UFC to the negotiating woodshed so regularly. So, in that way, I think McGegor is an entirely isolated example.
I do think, however, that UFC fighters will try to emulate him, to varying degrees of success. In the last few years, we’ve already started to see more and more fighterstake their grievances with the company public. We’re also nearly continuously hearing rumblings about unionization, though so far those efforts have been miserable failures.
McGregor merely adds fuel to that fire. While I’m not sure his continued victories over the UFC mean a full-scale rebellion is coming, I do think the days of the fight company being able to move unchecked over an entirely servile population of athletes are coming to and end.
And I think McGregor deserves some credit for playing a role in that shift.
Drifting so close to actually getting the Mayweather fight signed is another reminder that since he arrived in the UFC in 2013, McGregor has been making good on impossible promises. Each time the so-called experts laugh at his plans or shrug him off, he goes out and makes us all look like fools.
So, Mike, at the risk of looking foolish once more, if McGregor lands this fight, how on earth could he top it? Could he return to the UFC as a mere fighter again? Or might we see the rise of McGregor Promotions, another of McGregor’s wild ideas that at first drew laughs but might ultimately turn out to be more legitimate than anyone would’ve thought?
Chiappetta: How can he top it? This is the multi-million dollar question, isn’t it? Because all of what we’ve seen over the four years since McGregor showed up in the Octagon hasn’t been some accident or fate. He’s legitimately called every shot he’s taken, then gone out and accomplished it.
He said he’d win the lightweight belt, that he’d become a two-weight world champion, that he’d become MMA’s highest-paid draw. All of those things have come true, but only by way of his hard work, self-promotion skills and political maneuverings.
And as you mentioned, he’s also talked about launching McGregor Promotions. At this point, why would we doubt him? Anyone who doesn’t believe he’s going to work his damnedest to follow through on his declaration hasn’t been paying attention.
McGregor Promotions is coming. He’s already told us his end game, and that’s why I think UFC is playing with fire by agreeing to his demands. Don’t get be wrong, I’m glad they did. This is prizefighting, and I think athletes should be able to chase the fights that pay them the most money, even if those fights aren’t the most meaningful in a sporting sense.
We should all tip our caps to UFC for giving ground. I wouldn’t say this makes them any more fighter-friendly, but it’s a single big step in that direction, albeit in an exceptional circumstance.
Yet, you have to wonder if this is McGregor continuing the, “You give an inch, I’ll take a mile” approach to control his career and future. And if it is, good for him.
For the longest time, fighters who gave pieces of their lives in the Octagon only to ask for a favor in return, have been shot down. Randy Couture desperately wanted to fight Fedor Emelianenko. Anderson Silva wanted to box Roy Jones. For crying out loud, Georges St-Pierre was lambasted by White just because he decided he needed time away from the sport. And these are guys who have actually made the UFC real money.
McGregor? He ain’t going out like that. He’s going to call his shots and follow through, and White is going to have to deal with him, not the other way around. I love it. Sure, this whole thing will probably end up in some lawsuit-filled debacle, but this is MMA, and chaos is part of the product.
So let’s take this all the way to the conclusion, Chad. Let’s say McGregor and Mayweather reach a deal. They fight. McGregor makes an eight-figure payday. He leaves the ring with a whole new perspective on life. What happens next? Where is his first post-Mayweather fight? The UFC? His own cage? The courtroom?
Chad: It depends on a litany of factors, Mike.
Firstly, McGregor’s goal in any fight against Mayweather should be to just not get embarrassed so badly that it ends up dampening his star power. The last thing he wants is to wind up like Ronda Rousey, the sudden butt of a million internet memes.
But if McGregor plays this correctly—and so far he’s played almost everything correctly—I think he’ll be treated as a conquering hero for taking the Mayweather bout. He’ll ace the promotional lead-up to the fight and, let’s be honest, the boxing and mainstream media will line up to guzzle down the Conor McGregor Show like sweet, sweet nectar.
The media will laud him for having the guts to cross the aisle and take on one of the greatest boxers of the modern era and fight fans will understand that he’s not competing at his natural sport. So long as he avoids getting completely smashed and then handles the loss with the same dignity he showed after Nate Diaz beat him at UFC 196, he’ll waltz in and out of this matchup with no damage to his legacy.
And then things will get interesting.
You and I have gone back and forth on this before, Mike.
One thing we’ve never seen McGregor do is take a step backward. To him, it’s always on to bigger and better things once a goal is realized. In that way, it’s tough to imagine him fighting Mayweather and then going back to the UFC to accept a low-profile matchup against someone like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson or even Diaz again, for less exposure and a lot less money.
On the other hand, McGregor is only 28 years old—still just a pup, even by the harsh standards of combat sports. As you once put it to me, Mike, a guy who likes his lavish lifestyle as much as McGregor obviously does ain’t gonna quit the money-making business before he even turns 30.
He set a blistering pace during his most recent UFC run, fought four fights in 11 months, won two titles and smashed MMA pay-per-view records at every turn. On May 6, he and longtime partner Dee Devlin welcomed their first child—a boy named Conor Jr.
So, I suppose I’m going to end this by saying I’ve given up trying to anticipate what Conor McGregor will do. I’ve learned the hard way not to take him at his word, but the only thing I can say with reasonable certainty will be that his next project stands to be bigger, bolder and even more audacious than this one.
Nobody enjoyed their time on the road more than 
In addition to that, Henry also claimed that McGregor is one of the best boxers he has ever laid his eyes on, and believes “The Notorious One” has a shot against Mayweather in the first two rounds of the fight. After that, however, it’s going to be a rough night for the UFC lightweight champ: