Mayweather vs McGregor – The news hit the combat sports world like a ton of bricks and the hype is not likely to diminish as Floyd Mayweather Jr will be facing MMA star Conor McGregor on August 26th in Las Vegas. The match-up has been talked about for the better part of the last year and now that the contracts are signed and the fight date is set you can expect the publicity for this fight to be overwhelming. The expectations are that it will beat out the boxing pay-per-view sales record of 4.4 million buys set by Mayweather’s fight with Manny Pacquiao back in May of 2015.
Both men figure to laugh all the way to the bank on this one even if they do not break the 4.4 million sales barrier. Both men have proven adept at selling themselves and there are going to be a lot of opportunities for both men to cash in. Earlier this week McGregor revealed that he was not subject to the UFC’s clothing deal with Reebok for this fight, meaning he is looking for an apparel sponsor for this one. Cha-ching.
Mayweather is currently a pretty heavy favorite at the sports books and in typical “Money” fashion he is fighting at home on a date he selected to slant things in his favor. This is not to mention the skill factor which is weighed heavily in Mayweather’s favor as the best of his generation taking on a novice under Queensberry rules. The match is a set-up for Mayweather to net his 50th career win in boxing and should be looked at no other way.
Another point that few are talking about is the date of August 26th falling on the same day as the return of Miguel Cotto, who is now with Golden Boy Promotions. Mayweather didn’t miss the chance to flatten old rival Oscar De La Hoya’s recent signee Cotto while not taking on GBP’s main charge of Saul Alvarez, who is set to fight on September 16th. Look back at Mayweather’s career and you see he fought in the middle of September for the last 5 or 6 years of his career.
TnS Podcast #45 looks at whether the match should be sanctioned as an official boxing match or if it should just be labelled for the side show it is. Take a listen.
Mayweather vs McGregor – TnS Boxing Podcast #45
The 45th edition of the TnS Boxing Podcast also looks at the business end of boxing and the business of boxing pay-per-views. Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev met for the second time on HBO pay-per-view and the numbers for that fight are expected to be low. The first match between the two men went down last November and sold roughly 200,000 PPVs and the second match-up is expected to improve on that only slightly.
The next “big” pay-per-view on the HBO calendar is set for September 16th as Gennady Golovkin faces Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a fight for middleweight supremacy that promises to get a lot of attention. Alvarez proved he is still a draw by grabbing almost 1 million PPV buys for his May match-up with washed up Julio Cesar Chavez and the choice of Golovkin as an opponent assures the Mexican superstar “Canelo” of a big year in 2017.
Mayweather vs McGregor – TnS Boxing Podcast #45 / Check out more boxing news and features at The Sweet Science, where the best boxing writers write.
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