Fighting words money in bank
Mayweather-McGregor tour swings by T.O. — and spectacle finds captive audience
The overflow crowd at the Budweiser Stage rained boos on Floyd (Money) Mayweather as the champion boxer strutted to centre stage, where UFC champ Conor McGregor stood, waiting and scowling.
Within seconds the two principals in the biggest combat sports event of the year stood nose to nose, barking at full volume.
The men edged closer. Temperatures rose. Crowd noise levelled up.
Nearby, boxing power broker and Mayweather ally Sam Watson sidled up to UFC president Dana White. The pair shared a few words and wide grins. And why wouldn’t they smile? On Wednesday, Mayweather and McGregor arrived in Toronto as part of a four-city press tour hyping their Aug. 26 boxing match, which purports to settle questions about whether boxing or mixed martial arts is the pre-eminent combat sport.
Purists may hate it but Mayweather, McGregor, White and Watson all got the point as the face-to-face unfolded.
The spectacle is selling. Curiosity about a cross-genre fight between the biggest stars of their respective sports is morphing into genuine demand. And when that happens everyone involved gets rich.
“This is not a normal fight.” CONOR MCGREGOR RIGHT, ON AUG. 26 DATE WITH FLOYD MAYWEATHER
“This is not a normal fight,” McGregor said at the end of a sizzle reel that played just before his introduction. “This is big, big business.”
Throughout the 16,000-seat amphitheatre, fans unfurled Irish flags, jeered Mayweather and serenaded McGregor with cheers and chants.
At 28, McGregor is in his athletic prime, and finalizing the Mayweather bout shows he’s also at the peak of his in-ring earning power. After lobbying the UFC for bigger paydays, McGregor went outside the organization to secure the biggest windfall in combat sport — a bout with Mayweather.
Among UFC fighters McGregor has earned a reputation as a powerful puncher with a creative offensive mind. In his most heavily-hyped UFC bout he starched Jose Aldo in13 seconds.
But his skills in the octagon didn’t earn him a shot at Mayweather. His flair for self-promotion did. And when he took the stage Wednesday, preening and grandstanding for fans who came to see him do just that, he was reluctant to cede the spotlight to the 40-year-old boxing great.
“I’m not getting off this mic unless you take it from me,” McGregor bellowed. “Otherwise, I’m taking over this whole s---.”
After kicking off in Los Angeles, the tour arrived in Toronto and provided the fighters a chance to refine material they debuted out west. On Tuesday, McGregor ordered Mayweather to “dance for me, boy,” and critics quickly pointed out that calling an African-American man “boy” could easily be construed as racist. McGregor repeated the line Wednesday.
The Toronto crowd was loud and wild. Organizers knew they would be, which is why the media tour stopped here. “Toronto has been a massive MMA market, so it made sense,” said Steven Espinoza, executive VP of Showtime Sports, which will broadcast the fight. “We got the most bang for our buck here.”
As a sporting event, the bout presents McGregor with big obstacles.
Mayweather has ridden sublime defence, timing and accuracy to a 49-0 record while McGregor, 21-3 in MMA, has never boxed professionally. Leaked footage of sparring with fringe contender Chris Van Heerden shows the South African pot-shotting McGregor. The clips illustrate how painfully complicated it can be to cross over to boxing from MMA.
“It’s really about (MMA fighters) learning to defend themselves, and their defence is not that good,” said Troy Ross, a former Commonwealth champion boxer who attended the event. “Boxers have to learn how to defend ourselves to last long in the sport. With the MMA guys, they just want to learn how to punch.”
But Wednesday’s event also made clear that sport is secondary to spectacle. So when McGregor teased Mayweather about the boxer’s unpaid taxes, Mayweather pulled stacks of cash from a knapsack to show he’s still rich. And when Mayweather draped himself in an Irish flag, McGregor threatened to make off with the money bag. In August they’ll both get paid. The three best-selling boxing payper-views in history all involve Mayweather, while McGregor headlined the UFC’s four best sellers. Mayweather’s 2015 bout with Manny Pacquiao sold a record 4.4 million pay per views and promoters are hoping this bout, which retails for $100 (U.S.), can surpass that number.
But Mayweather, whose company will promote this fight, figures to make more. Where McGregor earns seven-figure guarantees for his UFC bouts, Mayweather is reported to have made $200 million for the Pacquiao clash.
As Toronto fans booed him, Mayweather made clear he doesn’t see McGregor as a peer.
“Don’t even talk to me,” he sneered, “about a $3 million fighter.”