I’ll be a god of boxing when this is all over
CONOR McGREGOR has said he will be a ‘god of boxing” after his fight with Floyd Mayweather.
The Irish MMA star will participate in his first boxing contest on August 26 when he tries to end Mayweather’s 49-fight unbeaten record.
Given McGregor’s lack of experience and Mayweather’s reputation as one of the sport’s finest fighters, many observers are predicting a mis-match at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
But McGregor, a two-weight UFC champion who has previously claimed he would beat Mayweather inside four rounds, remains confident he can shock the world.
‘I have a game plan and I will execute it perfectly, like always,’ he said at a media workout in Las Vegas. ‘I have been boxing my whole life so this is not a new experience for me.
‘I will rule over MMA and boxing with an iron fist after August 26. The critics say that Floyd has been there before. They discredit my training, my skills, my accomplishments.
‘This isn’t new to me though, just like boxing isn’t new to me. I am no stranger to being the underdog on paper. I am a seasoned veteran and I am confident that I am the better man.
‘After Saturday August 26, I will be a god of boxing.’
Mayweather has seen off the likes of Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya during his professional boxing career and is aiming to surpass Rocky Marciano’s record and move to 50-0.
But McGregor believes he can end the 40-year-old’s flawless record in ‘the biggest fight of all time’. He said: ‘The story of the fight will be waiting to see who takes a step back first. We all know Floyd is a great defensive boxer and he isn’t going to keep coming forward like he says. If he does, it’s going to be a quick night for me.
‘This camp has been amazing. I’m getting better by the day, more alert, quicker. My weight is at a good place but I’m going to be a much bigger man than Floyd when we step in the ring and I think that makes a difference.
‘It means the world to have fans travelling from Ireland and all over the world for this fight. This is the biggest fight of all time and we owe them a hell of a show.’
Fight fans attending the fight will have a chance to rub shoulders with the stars in Las Vegas – but it won’t come cheap. The least expensive ticket listed on reseller StubHub is going for an eye-watering $1,675 with two weeks to go the 12-round super welterweight matchup.
‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime, bucket-list event, so the die-hard Mayweather and McGregor fans are usually going to find their way to the event,’ StubHub spokesman Cameron Papp said.
The fight has not yet sold out, with high face values and a lack of access seeming to have slowed down demand. Yet Leonard Ellebre, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, dismissed concerns about the fight’s popularity earlier in the week.
‘This isn’t a damn Rolling Stones concert. They’re the only thing that sells out in seconds,’ he said. ‘We have over $60 million in ticket sales – what part of that remotely looks like ticket sales are slow?’
The $60 million figure revealed by Ellebre is still a long way short of Mayweather’s previous record of $72 million in ticket sales, a figure achieved when he met Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas in 2015.