Tag: Mayweather vs. McGregor Megafight

Hundreds of tickets are reportedly still available for the Aug. 26 bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. 

According to the Associated Press’ Tim Dahlberg, “a check online Saturday revealed hundreds—even thousands—of seats still available” firsthand on Ticketmaster after they were initially made available to the public Monday. 

Based on the cost to get into T-Mobile Arena for the Las Vegas spectacle, that’s not a major surprise. 

As Dahlberg noted, the cheapest face-value ticket is $3,500, and that’s not counting approximately $300 worth of fees associated with the purchase. Prices soar as high as $10,000 for ringside seats, with VIP “platinum” tickets clocking in just under $15,000. 

Those astronomical rates have also contributed to some paltry secondhand-market sales. 

“There’s fairly little sales going on in general,” SeatGeek.com content analyst Chris Leyden said, per Dahlberg. “I think a lot of it has to do with where prices are now. I think people are a little uncomfortable paying this much or maybe even more.”

If the tickets do sell out, the fight should have a shot at breaking the record-setting $72,198,500 gate from Mayweather’s 2015 fight against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Garden Arena—which seats 16,800 compared to T-Mobile Arena’s 20,000. 

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Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield said he expects Floyd Mayweather Jr. to win his hyped encounter with UFC superstar Conor McGregor, but he also provided his opinion about how the Irishman can pull off the upset.

On Saturday, TMZ Sports passed along comments from The Real Deal about what it’s going to take for McGregor to shock the sports world.

“He would have to rough him up,” Holyfield said. “He’d have to do something that get [Mayweather] frustrated and get into a battle. I think his only chance is getting into a battle.”

The biggest question heading into the fight in terms of McGregor’s chances is whether he can do significant damage against Mayweather, who’s one of the best defensive boxers in history.

Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com passed along comments from longtime boxer Paulie Malignaggi following a training session with the UFC lightweight champion last week.

“He’s got some pop in the left hand, I can’t take that away from him,” he said. “In boxing, especially against a guy like Floyd Mayweather, you need to devise a few more weapons, and I think that’s what Conor is working on. I think … coming into this situation already knowing Conor has a big left hand … you’re probably going to prepare for that left hand.”

That’s the bottom line. Mayweather is a lot like the New England Patriots in the way he typically neutralizes an opponent’s biggest weapon and forces them to find another avenue to victory.

The undefeated five-division world champion will be prepared to handle McGregor’s powerful left-handed shots. It’s up to The Notorious to come up with something that can surprise Money enough to turn the fight in his favor, and Malignaggi told ESPN.com the underdog is working on it.

“He’s going to have his own style and set of things he does. He’s got a game plan. It’s not what people think,” he said. “I’ll put it like this: He knows what he wants to do and he has a method of how he wants to get there. The mechanism of how he gets there may look, to the naked eye, ‘hmm, I don’t know about this.’ But there’s a method to his madness. He’s a thinker.”

Prevailing wisdom suggests Mayweather will be able to use his tactical skills to control the fight against the boxing newcomer, and that could well be the case. But it sounds like McGregor could have a few tricks up his sleeve in an effort to prove Holyfield and everyone else picking against him wrong.

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UFC star Conor McGregor has insisted his doubters will “eat your words” when he meets Floyd Mayweather Jr. on August 26. 

McGregor posted the following message on social media on Wednesday:

The social media post came after former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson issued a warning to the Irishman ahead of his first-ever professional boxing match.

Tyson said McGregor “took the biggest sucker rules in the history of boxing” and will be “killed” by Mayweather when they go head-to-head, per Pardon My Take (h/t Tom Bassam of the MailOnline).

But McGregor’s post shows he’s confident of overcoming the odds when he faces up to Mayweather.

The UFC lightweight champion responded directly to Tyson’s comments as well, comparing himself to the boxing icon’s former promoter. “That’s nice, Mike, but you’re looking at the new Don King here, son,” he said on social media, per Daniel Matthews of the MailOnline. “Money is mine.”

McGregor is set to earn plenty from the meeting at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to the Daily Telegraph, the purse for the fight will be around $300 million, with Mayweather said to be taking around 70 per cent of the pot.

Mayweather will be in action for the first time in almost two years. His last professional fight was against Andre Berto in September 2015, which was his 49th win from as many bouts.

 

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