Mayweather, McGregor know people just can’t look away
NEW YORK » If you came into Thursday night’s MayweatherMcGregor World Tour stop at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center expecting an absolute trainwreck, you did not go home disappointed.
With some of the incredible string of profane, sexually explicit and mind-numbingly inane comments coming from almost everyone involved — but primarily Conor McGregor, and to a lesser extent, Floyd Mayweather — it was hard not think back to a popular line from the movie Billy Madison.
“What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
The third stop of the fourday, four-city tour to promote August 26th’s mega-bout between Mayweather and McGregor, both the biggest names in their respective combat sports, was something of a dud. Advertised for a 7 p.m. start to a crowd of over 13,000 that received free tickets, the public portion of the night’s proceedings didn’t actually begin until an hour and a half later and had a WWE meets MMA feel to it.
Following a bizarre display by rapper Swizz Beatz during the pre-show in which he spoke about his beef with Timbaland and a performance by Doug E. Fresh in which he was ultimately booed off the stage, the pro-McGregor crowd was anxious to react to their hero’s entrance, which was made on a red-carpeted ramp up to the main stage.
The UFC’s top star, McGregor made his way to the stage shirtless — with his torso covered only by a mink coat — and floral print pants. As if those didn’t attract enough attention, he then pointed towards his unmentionables when addressing issues of potentially racially-insensitive comments he’s made on the tours previous two stops, and followed that by perpetuating a stereotype about AfricanAmerican males before dancing as a present to his “beautiful, black female fans.”
Just. Stop. Talking.
But that’s all there really was on Thursday. Talk.
There were several near-altercations, but those mostly involved each fighter’s respective entourages, although UFC president Dana White did have to physically pull McGregor away from Mayweather during the night’s ending square-off photo op.
Speaking of Mayweather, McGregor’s actions understandably didn’t sit well with him.
“Disrespecting my daughter, disrespecting the mother of my daughter, disrespecting black women, calling black people monkeys is totally disrespectful,” he said, the latter referencing a comment McGregor made during a Jimmy Kimmel Live interview on Wednesday.
“I have a diverse team. A diverse staff. And when I was young, I may have said some things I shouldn’t have said because I was young. But you live, you learn and you don’t say those things when you get to a certain age because it’s all about growth and maturity.”
Given that there was little maturity to be found on the Barclays Center stage — Mayweather had one of his handlers bring out a bag of money and started showering McGregor with it — mercifully, what has essentially amounted to a trashtalking tour will come to end on Friday in London before the month-long buildup to the fight itself begins.
Ah yes, the fight itself. Mayweather can certainly stand to spare a bag or two of money, given what he called the “business decision” to take this fight, one he seriously suggested would one day be discussed at Harvard and that will net him in the low-nine figures.
Much like the press conference, that too is expected to be a trainwreck. But, as was the case on Thursday, McGregor and Mayweather know that people just can’t look away ... even if perhaps they should.