Fighters booed as media tour insults become stale
Floyd Mayweather showered Conor McGregor with dollar bills in a bizarre press conference ahead of the final stop of the pair’s media tour in London yesterday.
The t wo fighters faced off in Brooklyn, New York, ahead of their Las Vegas boxing match on August 26.
McGregor, who has never boxed professionally, enjoyed by far the better of their meeting in Toronto the previous day as 17,000 fans rounded on Mayweather.
However, both fighters and their promoters were booed by the crowd at the Barclays Centre as the pair appeared to run out of fresh insults.
McGregor had bragged about the quality of his suits at the first t wo stops in Los Angeles and Toronto, but emerged sporting floral trousers and a robe he repeatedly claimed was polar bear fur.
Mayweather, who brandished a cheque for US$ 100 million ($ 136m) in Los Angeles, brought out a backpack with a large wad of cash in it and took to draping himself in an Irish flag for the second evening running.
The American was received with more chants of “pay your taxes” — in reference to reports he has asked the Internal Revenue Service for more time to settle his 2015 tax bill.
But the crowd also turned on McGregor, who in a bizarre rant took aim not only at Mayweather’s financial situation but also rapper 50 Cent.
The mixed martial arts star finished by saying: “To come back here, where I made history, became the first fighter in history to win two UFC titles simultaneously.
“Thanks to you all, I’m blown away by the support.”
Mayweather, who retired in 2015 with a perfect 49- 0 record and having held world titles at five different weights, responded by ridiculing McGregor for submitting in three of his 24 MMA contests.
The 40- year- old then asked for the music to come on before labelling McGregor “a stripper” and throwing dollar bills over him.
The pair are scheduled to finish their media tour at SSE Wembley Arena today. To play at Wimbledon, even your underwear has to be white.
The All England Club has rules about how much colour can be worn on court, and a few junior players seem to have run afoul of the strict standards this week.
According to the BBC, the doubles team of Zsombor Piros of Hungary and Wu Yibing of China were given white underpants and forced to change before their match yesterday.
When the boys returned on court from the locker room, they walked to their chairs and put their darker undies into their tennis bags.
Overnight, a different player tugged at his shorts to reveal the top his underwear to an official while standing at the net before the match.
“It is our preference that any issues regarding the ‘ all- white’ rule and undergarments are discussed and dealt with between matches,” the All England Club said in an email.
Wimbledon tightened its allwhite clothing policy in 2014, and even Roger Federer complained about it that year. He harkened back to the days when past champions such as Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker had some colour in their clothing.
But All England Club chief executive Richard Lewis said in a statement at that time that “the rule is almost entirely in white”.
“We felt the time was right to make accessories such as undergarments, headbands and wristbands consistent with the policy we were applying to the shirts, shorts and socks,” Lewis said then.
At the start of this year’s tournament, Venus Williams was wearing pink under her tennis dress. She was asked about it after her first round win, but had no intention of answering.
“What pink bra?” Williams said. “I don’t like talking about bras in press conferences. It’s weird.”