BIG SALES PITCH NEEDS BUYER BEWARE TAG
Promoters want you to believe McGregor can make this fight interesting; he can’t
Conor McGregor screams a lot and swears a lot and makes bold, if not ridiculous, proclamations rather often.
It is all part of the grand sell. And we’re caught smack in the middle of all the noise, trying to look away from the circus, unable to do so. These are the sounds of World Wrestling Entertainment, only this time — with different promoters and sport, rather than pre-ordained entertainment — there will be a result that matters.
But this is what really matters most: Floyd Mayweather’s nickname, Money.
Wednesday was Stop 2 on the Mayweather-McGregor fight tour. Los Angeles Tuesday. Toronto Wednesday. New York Thursday. London Friday. Four days, three countries, two continents: The same act for the same purpose.
They need to convince the buying public that McGregor, the mixed martial arts fighter and personality, has anything resembling a chance against Mayweather, one of the greatest professional boxers, albeit a retired one, of all-time.
They need to sell McGregor as someone nasty enough, desperate enough, dirty enough, to do anything and everything to manage what no boxer has ever done: find a way to mess up Mayweather.
The Toronto event Wednesday night was originally scheduled for the Sony Centre but the demand for fan tickets, at no cost, was through the roof. The news conference scream-off had to be moved to the Budweiser Stage, formerly the Molson Amphitheatre, where the rock band Boston did the screaming Tuesday night.
Exactly why the excited public wants to participate in this live shlock is a matter better explained on another day. But the sell is not for those who have already bought in: In this case, the non-paying public of Wednesday night is already aboard. They will hand over their pay-per-view dollars on Aug. 26. They don’t need to be sold. They’re already part of the show, the easy sell of the promotion.
But they’re not the crowd the promoters, led by UFC president Dana White, who built his organization into a giant money maker at a time when boxing was in decline, requires here. They’re looking to do what’s never been done before. They need the undecided vote to shatter records, enough so that the US$22.2-million Mayweather owes the IRS in the United States will be pocket change when all the accounting is completed post-fight — not to mention the $7.2 million in taxes owed from 2010 for the year he fought Shane Mosley.
Mayweather is a memorable boxer, undefeated, seemingly untouchable, who has really never had a memorable fight. But he has on his rather impressive resume the three largest payper-view fights in history. He did US$400 million in business, 4.4 million in actual sales, for his one-sided walk-through with Manny Pacquiao. He did $150 million for his one-sided win over Saul Alvarez. He did $136 million and 2.4 million in sales for the Oscar De La Hoya fight. We waited all night for something to happen on that occasion.
What happened is what happens in most Mayweather fights: His opponents punch air. They get frustrated and we get frustrated. He is Wayne Gretzky-like in the ring. He can’t be hit. So after paying your money and spending the night waiting for some action, you end your night cursing the money you spent and vowing you’ll never do it again.
Until the next time, where you make the same phone call.
The Mayweather watchers will order this fight. The UFC believers and the McGregor fans will order this fight. That’s expected. But the promoters and the participants want more than that. They want a home run here. They want this baby knocked out of the park.
If McGregor was able to get 1.7 million buys on his biggest UFC ordeal and Mayweather managed 4.4 million buys for the Pacquiao fight, then it’s easy to count the possibilities here. That’s where the hard sell comes from.
Logic would tell you McGregor has no chance over 12 rounds. There is little chance a non-trained boxer, tough as he may be, intense as he may be, will be able to get to Mayweather when fighters the calibre of De La Hoya and Pacquiao could not.
The promoters want to drown out that logic.
They’d like you to believe McGregor is capable of anything — a head butt, a low blow, losing his mind in the ring, a bite to the ear, even. Anything could happen — you’ll pay a hundred bucks for that, won’t you?
That’s why they were in Toronto Wednesday night, yelling from the rooftops. They want you and need you on the night of Aug. 26. They need you to believe when there is absolutely no reason to play along.