ON SECOND THOUGHT . . .
Forget the fourth round, Conor McGregor says he’ll end Mayweather fight in two,
Ten days ahead of the boxing match between future hall-of-famer Floyd Mayweather and UFC champion Conor McGregor, stakeholders are adjusting projections upward.
Ticket sales, pay-per-view buys and overall revenue are all headed north, they say.
Meanwhile McGregor, a 29-yearold who has never boxed professionally, has revised one key estimate downward.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission approved a joint request Wednesday that both fighters wear eight-ounce gloves for their Aug. 26 showdown. Commission rules require 10-ounce gloves for 154-pound fighters, and McGregor thinks the waiver allowing smaller gloves will amplify his punching power.
Where he first said he’d stop Mayweather in four rounds, he now makes a bolder prediction.
“Now that the gloves are eight ounces, I don’t believe he makes it out of the second round,” McGregor said during Wednesday’s media conference call.
“I’m ready to put him away in the first 10 seconds. That’s where my head’s at.”
Other peoples’ minds are on the money.
Mayweather told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday that he would likely gross $350 million from the bout.
While high prices depressed ticket sales early, secondary seller StubHub reports robust recent business. The company says Mayweather-McGregor is the second-best selling fight on their platform, trailing only Mayweather’s 2015 clash with Manny Pacquiao.
StubHub communications manager Cameron Papp says it makes sense, given that four of the top five best-selling fights in the company’s history involve either Mayweather or McGregor.
“The sales are going to go where the stars are,” Papp said.
UFC president Dana White says the event projects to shatter the record 4.6 million pay-per-view buys Mayweather-Pacquiao earned. And while boxing cards traditionally depend on TV viewers, White says the UFC’s inclusion as a co-promoter helps Mayweather-McGregor reach younger viewers on digital platforms.
“This is the biggest event ever in combat sports history,” White said. “If you’re in Manhattan or on a desert island somewhere, if you have Wi-Fi you can buy this fight.”
But selling this fight also means peddling the idea that Mayweather, an undefeated tactical wizard of a boxer, won’t badly outclass pro boxing debutant McGregor.
White insists McGregor is more skilled in the ring than the boxing community realizes, and says there’s precedent for stunning upsets in cross-genre fights.
The UFC president cited former heavyweight boxing champ Ray Mercer, who flattened faded UFC star Tim Sylvia in nine seconds when they met in a 2009 MMA bout.
But where Mercer used his boxing expertise to prevail in a fight that permitted fisticuffs, McGregor can’t kick, elbow or choke Mayweather to gain an advantage.
He can only box, and questions still surround his ring proficiency.
White released two video clips last week on social media — one that he said showed McGregor scoring a knockdown over retired former boxing champ Paulie Malignaggi, and another featuring McGregor landing a thunderous left hand against the boxer.
Malignaggi maintains those two clips, which total less than 30 seconds, are McGregor’s best moments from a 12-round sparring session the boxer says he dominated. He has repeatedly invited the UFC to publish unedited footage of the whole session.
Replays also reveal McGregor cuffed Malignaggi behind the neck and dragged him to the canvas rather than dropping him with a punch.
When McGregor performed a series of unorthodox drills as part of his media workout, boxers mocked the movements and posted video to social media with the hashtag #McGregorChallenge.
McGregor acknowledges his skills look strange to people steeped in boxing technique. For him, that’s the point. “They’ve got a closed mind,” he said. “You’ve got to have an open mind . . . Fighting is a complex game. There’s a time and a place for every single attack.”