UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is scheduled to fight boxing legend, Floyd Mayweather, this weekend and make no mistake about it, this will be the biggest fight of the year. It also might be the most lucrative boxing match in history. Betting odds have been available since the fight was officially announced and Mayweather has […]
UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is scheduled to fight boxing legend, Floyd Mayweather, this weekend and make no mistake about it, this will be the biggest fight of the year. It also might be the most lucrative boxing match in history.
Betting odds have been available since the fight was officially announced and Mayweather has been the favorite since then. The reason for this is due to McGregor never fighting as a professional boxer before. There are some people who are supporting McGregor. They believe that the UFC champion can pull off the upset due to his size, power, youth, being a southpaw, and unorthodox style.
If you recall, Mayweather has beaten numerous opponents who were bigger, stronger, or younger than him. So this may not be such an advantage after all. At the end of the day, Mayweather hasn’t faced is a guy like McGregor.
“What other mixed martial artist is there like me?” McGregor told The Mac Life, recently (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “He’d need to reincarnate Bruce Lee, and that would be the only person that could mimic me, what way I’m coming at him. I’m not like any other mixed martial artist. I’m not like any other boxer. I am in a league of my own, and I will prove that on August 26.”
“I’ve been in this life a long time. I’ve had these mega, mega-fights. I’m under this spotlight a long time, a lot longer than all his other previous opponents. So that’s where he’s probably feeling that that will come to his aid in there but I’ve experienced this time and time again. Couple that with true fights in the ring. There’s been no spars here. That referee is fully kitted out, and it’s point deductions, and it’s a full on fight, so I’m ready.”
The biggest fight of the year is set to go down on August 26th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout will air on pay-per-view and is expected to be the most lucrative prize fight of all time.
UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will obviously take on Floyd Mayweather in the biggest combat sports spectacle of all-time when the two polarizing stars meet in a boxing ring in Las Vegas next Saturday, August 26, 2017. But no matter what happens there, McGregor and his team have teased a return to the octagon before […]
UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will obviously take on Floyd Mayweather in the biggest combat sports spectacle of all-time when the two polarizing stars meet in a boxing ring in Las Vegas next Saturday, August 26, 2017.
But no matter what happens there, McGregor and his team have teased a return to the octagon before the end of the year, and that return has even rumored to be against decorated but oft-injured No. 1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov, and even in “The Egle’s” home of Russia. While that’s unlikely to happen logistically, it’s a huge fight that would arguably burst the seams of a UFC pay-per-view wallet that’s been noticeably thin in 2017.
If it did happen, however, McGregor’s close friend and training partner Artem Lobov, who hails from Russia himself, isn’t convinced of whom would be the more popular fighter in Russia. He recently told MMA Fighting that McGregor has already had a big impact in MMA become mainstream in the fight-centered country:
“When I talk to Russian fighters when I’m over there they are very thankful and complimentary of Conor,” Lobov said. “They see him as one of the main factors behind MMA becoming mainstream in Russia. The pay for most fighters has increased as the popularity of MMA has increased. They are definitely feeling the McGregor effect in the East.”
As for the potential fight between the two, Lobov isn’t certain Khabib would actually be the bigger draw in his homeland. In fact, he thinks Khabib has found the popularity he has in Russia because of McGregor
“It would be very hard to say who would be the bigger draw in Russia between Khabib and Conor. I honestly feel that Khabib is as big as he is in Russia because of Conor McGregor,” Lobov said.
“As I said, Conor is the guy who has made MMA a hot topic in Russia. More and more Russians started watching the UFC when Conor came along. The more they watched, the more they understood it. Then, all of a sudden you get this Russian guy coming along and of course the Russian people put their support behind him.”
Lobov elaborated on the strong stance, noting that the notoriously tough Russia people have noticed the constant pullouts and issues that have limited Khabib to only three fights in the last four years:
“A lot of people in Russian aren’t happy with how Khabib has been behaving with all of his pullouts,” Lobov said, “This isn’t a very manly thing to do, not showing up for a fight. In Russia, the people have been brought up tough. It used to be the Soviet Union. The thing everybody thinks of when they think about Russia is how tough the people are.
“When they see a fighter continuously pulling out, that’s something that they really don’t like. Then they look at a guy like Conor who always shows up and does what he says he’s going to do. That really resonates with the Russian public.”
So if the fight ever did happen in Russia, Lobov believes there would be overwhelming support for McGregor, perhaps even more than for Khabib when taking all the Irish fans that would travel to the event:
“There would be a lot of support for Conor. If you factor in the Irish that would travel over, there might be even more people supporting Conor at the event even though it would be taking place in Russia.”
In exactly one week, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will meet all-time boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. in what will most likely be the most lucrative combat sporting event ever when they throw down in a boxing match next Saturday (August 26, 2017) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The hype has reached […]
In exactly one week, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will meet all-time boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. in what will most likely be the most lucrative combat sporting event ever when they throw down in a boxing match next Saturday (August 26, 2017) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The hype has reached a fever pitch, one that’s completely overshadowed anything actually involving real MMA competition, of which the UFC has not staged an event for what will be three consecutive weeks when it’s all said and done, an unheard-of proposition in the current time where nearly every weekend has some sort of UFC event or another. It’s probably a good plan, however, as any UFC card would simply be drowned out by the spectacle of Mayweather vs. McGregor anyway.
And let’s be honest – it is a spectacle above all else. McGregor, despite being one of the most powerful knockout artists in UFC history, has never fought a professional boxing match, yet in one week’s time, he’ll take on a combatant with an unblemished 49-0 record whom many feel is arguably the greatest boxer of all-time. That’s a gross discrepancy that’s difficult to overcome, so while McGregor and, as a result, the UFC and MMA as a whole, will undoubtedly earn a ton of attention and money because of next week’s spectacle, it’s also fair to wonder if the mismatched (at least on paper) bout is actually good for the sport of MMA in the long run.
I’m not saying it’s not with any degree of uncertainty – it very well may be, especially in terms of the financial success that new UFC owners WME-IMG seem to covet above all else – and need to pay back the loans they helped to cover the promotion’s record-breaking $4.2 billion price tag. But another view of the situation created by this once-in-a-lifetime bout paints a scene that is an overall reflection of one of the main criticisms WME-IMG has undergone since buying the company – that they focus on promoting only one or two big stars.
Photo: Steve Flynn – USA TODAY Sports
McGregor is obviously their biggest star and draw, and based on the absolutely dismal numbers they had during the early months of 2017 when he was absent, they clearly need him more than he needs them. True, they had to effectively shut down their own events to take advantage of this golden opportunity, but how many more bouts does McGregor really have left in the octagon after what is rumored to be a $100-million plus payday versus Mayweather, even if he insists he wants to fight in MMA before the end of the year?
It’s going to be tough to go back to making even $10 million a fight in the UFC after that kind of money, and if and when McGregor steps aside from the fight game like he’s always hinted at, the UFC is going to be in yet another situation where they have no huge draw and haven’t built up any new stars to come even close to the stratosphere of replacing McGregor. Jon Jones is back, but he doesn’t quite qualify on that level overall, and he’s only made it to one fight after two years of concerning issues kept him from fighting.
That’s not even taking into account the possibility that McGregor gets completely embarrassed by the best defensive boxer of the modern era, a result that would paint a bad look for MMA. If he survives the full 12 rounds, it would be a huge boon to MMA. Again, that could certainly happen.
But overall, McGregor just wouldn’t appear to have three UFC fights in him a year for the next three years after facing Mayweather, which is why the UFC may have just mortgaged their future, or at least a big piece of it, to cash in on one massive yet short-sighted payday in the immediate future.
The economic gain is defintiely going to be huge for all involved next weekend. Whether or not that’s actually good for MMA is yet to be seen.
We’re finally closing in on August 26th, which means the incessant, non-stop media coverage of Mayweather vs McGregor will wind up before coming to a screeching halt sometime in the days (or maybe weeks) after. While the promoters and people behind this bizarre super fight maintain that this is the fight fans asked for, it […]
We’re finally closing in on August 26th, which means the incessant, non-stop media coverage of Mayweather vs McGregor will wind up before coming to a screeching halt sometime in the days (or maybe weeks) after.
While the promoters and people behind this bizarre super fight maintain that this is the fight fans asked for, it goes without saying that these same fans will most likely be unsatisfied with the final product.
Check out our five reasons why Mayweather vs. McGregor isn’t as big of a fight as it’s being advertised:
Photo: Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports
5. It’s Been Overhyped From Day One
Fight fans and non-fight fans alike have been inundated with media coverage of Mayweather vs McGregor since the moment the contracts were finalized.
From the premature week-long press tour (which was held in July, a month prior to fight night), to glove-size changes and spurned sparring partners, fans have been force-fed story after story on every possible detail regarding this crossover fight.
The media circus that has surrounded MayMac has been non-stop and so in-your-face it’s been impossible to ignore it.
Anytime a fight is hyped up that much, expectations always end up being too high in terms of the outcome.
There’s some concrete evidence Floyd Mayweather Jr. might not be taking the training for his upcoming boxing match with Conor McGregor next weekend (Sat., August 26, 2017) boxing match with Conor McGregor from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., as seriously as he has past opponents. Why is that, you ask? Well, ironically enough, it has […]
There’s some concrete evidence Floyd Mayweather Jr. might not be taking the training for his upcoming boxing match with Conor McGregor next weekend (Sat., August 26, 2017) boxing match with Conor McGregor from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., as seriously as he has past opponents.
Why is that, you ask? Well, ironically enough, it has something to do with Mayweather’s strip club “Girl Collection” in Las Vegas, an establishment McGregor repeatedly made fun during their exhausting four-city, three-country world tour last month.
Early this morning, the undefeated ‘Money’ tweeted that he would be meeting and greeting his fans starting immediately up all the way until the Monday after the fight:
Now, it’s hardly shocking to see a social media post online about Girl Collection from Mayweather, as it’s well known that he does exactly that frequently. Perhaps he’s flaunting the fact that he isn’t taking McGregor too seriously, which would be understandable based on his position as a boxing great with a 49-0 record while the UFC front man has 0 professional boxing bouts on his record.
His dad Floyd Mayweather Sr. also recently proclaimed his 40-year-old son wasn’t taking the training for McGregor as seriously as he did for other opponents because he was simply better, and justifiably so. But McGregor has the youth and knockout power on his side, and he also has the fact that he’s supposed to lose the fight on his side, making any good moments a win in his book.
That’s clearly alright to Mayweather, however, as he doesn’t think enough of McGregor’s boxing skills to keep him out of hi Vegas strip club the entire week of the fight. Or so he wants to believe.
Many eyebrows were raised after the Nevada State Athletic Commission acquiesced to Floyd Mayweather’s demand to change the size of the boxing gloves from ten ounces to eight ounces for his upcoming superfight with UFC star Conor McGregor. The fact that something like this hasn’t been done before makes the commission’s move unprecedented, and the […]
Many eyebrows were raised after the Nevada State Athletic Commission acquiesced to Floyd Mayweather’s demand to change the size of the boxing gloves from ten ounces to eight ounces for his upcoming superfight with UFC star Conor McGregor.
The fact that something like this hasn’t been done before makes the commission’s move unprecedented, and the backlash they took for doing so has left them in quite the predicament.
NSAC chief Bob Bennett discussed why the commission broke an 11-year rule for the sake of a fight many consider to be a circus to begin with:
“I think chairman (Anthony Marnell) put it very eloquently, very succinctly, and he basically put everybody on notice,” Bennett told MMAjunkie. “This is not something we get involved in.
“We’re strictly business. We’re regulators. We’re not promoters. We don’t do the PR work for them. So he basically put everybody on notice and did it very well, and I happen to agree with him.”
“My biggest concern about this consideration or this request that is being made is that I do not like the (NSAC) being used as a pawn in a social media bout between these two,” Marnell said. “That part of this request, it pisses me off, I’ll be really, really honest with you. I respect the fact that you missed this and you admitted that in your testimony that you may have missed this subject when you guys put this bout agreement together.
“But this body is not the subject of two fighters who want to go back and forth like these two have at each other to create social media stir and another controversy for attention to sell tickets (and) to sell DirecTV. However, in saying that, I would like to put that aside and I would just caution going forward that this body, this forum, not be used for that again.”
Regardless, Mayweather got his way on this one, as it seems he usually does.
Do you think the change in glove size will make any difference on fight night? Was the NSAC used and exploited by Mayweather’s camp?
