Tag: Mayweather vs. McGregor

Image: Esther Lin/Showtime

Going into the August 26th Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match, we knew it would generate a significant amount of business but just how much was the big question given the lopsided odds and the somewhat fun/somewhat cringy four city press tour.

On Thursday and nearly four months after the megafight, we got our answer as Showtime officially announced the pay-per-view extravaganza generated 4.3 million buys, falling 300,000 short of the 4.6 million record Mayweather set with Manny Pacquiao. 

At a price of $99.95, that’s a lot of money the two men divvied up, not to mention the take from outside North America where the show broke records for PPV buys. The total includes traditional purchasing methods (cable/satellite providers) in addition to various online options, most of which famously crashed due to an influx of traffic before the fight, causing a delay. 

The total revenue for the show (tickets, PPV, sponsorship, international TV distribution, etc) was in excess of $600 million, among the highest single-day grosses of all time.

This week, Mayweather said UFC has been in touch with him about coming to fight in the UFC. He said if he was to do so, he’d make $1 billion in just three or four fights.

McGregor, the UFC lightweight champion, hasn’t defended the title he won in November 2016 and it’s unclear whether he’ll ever return to the UFC again. The aforementioned Pacquaio said he was in negotiations with McGregor to box, which Dana White shot down quickly with the threat of a lawsuit.

The result may have been what most anticipated it would be, but the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor superfight delivered more than anyone could have reasonably expected it to.

Mayweather defeated McGregor by TKO in the 10th round, with the referee stopping the match as Mayweather was landing big shots and McGregor was about to go down. That came after McGregor put in a good showing as Mayweather felt him out early and waited to execute his gameplan.

In his post-fight interview, Mayweather reiterated that this was his final fight and praised McGregor as a champion. McGregor took issue with the stoppage, wanting the referee to make Mayweather put him down. McGregor said that he was only fatigued.

Mayweather was comfortably ahead on the judge’s scorecards at the time the fight was stopped. They had him up 89-81, 89-82, and 87-83.

McGregor had his most impressive moments in the first three rounds and landed 111 punches, which was 30 more than Manny Pacquiao did in his matchup with Mayweather.

Given their respective paydays, it was always going to be a good night for Mayweather and McGregor. But the result likely helps both as well. Mayweather got the win, advanced to 50-0, and put on a spectacle that pleased fans in a way that his superfight against Pacquiao didn’t.

For McGregor, he lasted 10 rounds against a boxing legend and was far from outclassed. He exits the bout a bigger star than he was going in, with options available for whatever he decides to do next.

McGregor said that he’d “of course” compete in the UFC again when asked about it after the fight.

What may be the biggest one-day revenue generating fight in history is just hours away with Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor in a boxing match taking place tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The fight, or more accurately, the cash heist, is expected to generate between $600 million and $700 million between all the various revenue streams, or very close to a full year of WWE revenue and more than a full year of UFC revenue.

Advance orders on PPV and iPPV are said to be incredibly strong, although the Mayweather-Pacquiao record of 4.6 million buys was achieved with an incredible number of late buys, and nobody can predict whether that is going to happen today.

It’s pretty clear the buzz is enormous and it’s all over ESPN, with what has been ostensibly fair coverage portraying the fight as, despite what Bob Bennett of the Nevada Athletic Commission said, would be unsanctionable if it wasn’t for the amount of money it would generate given Mayweather is 49-0 and the best boxer of his generation, even if a little past his prime, and McGregor never having fought in a professional boxing match.

Another controversy much talked about is that Rocky Marciano, a legendary heavyweight, finished his career at 49-0, the same as Mayweather, and the feeling that this should not be the fight to break such a hallowed mark.

But the fight was sanctioned by the Nevada Athletic Commission, even though Bennett even conceded other commissioners told him they would not sanction the fight.

Still, saying this would be the biggest upset in the history of boxing if McGregor would win goes greatly against the odds, which on Bovada this morning had Mayweather at only -375 and McGregor at +285. On paper, those odds are ridiculously close for what most experts see as a mismatch and one that McGregor has only a very slim chance of winning, and an early knockout being the best chance.

Between 92 and 93 percent of the bets have been for McGregor, although the biggest money bets, by far, have been for Mayweather, including some bets of more than $1 million. Even though far more actual money has been bet on Mayweather, for the sports books, a McGregor knockout win would constitute a major disaster, beating out the Holly Holm win over Ronda Rousey as the worst night for the sports books in history for a fight.

It has been said, with the volume of betting, that this will likely be the best night in history, or the worst, ever for sports books, depending on the outcome.

Here’s tonight’s schedule —

There will be two live fights from 7-9 p.m. Eastern on the Fox Network:

• Yordenis Ugas vs. Thomas Dulorme in a welterweight fight
• Juan Hernandez vs. Jose Miguel Borrego in a welterweight fight

The PPV starts at 9 p.m. Eastern:

• Andrew Tabiti vs. Steve Cunningham in a cruiserweight fight
• Gervonta Davis vs. Francisco Fonseca in a junior lightweight fight
• Badou Jack vs. Nathan Cleverly in a light heavyweight fight
• Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor in a super welterweight fight

Mayweather weighed in at 149.5 pounds and looked in great shape at that weight. He didn’t cut any weight since the fight is at 154 pounds. McGregor weighed in at 153 pounds, and is expected to go into the cage at 168 pounds, giving him a nearly 20 pound weight advantage.

The fight could be pivotal, as in some circles it’s being positioned as boxing vs. MMA, although the history of mixed matches shows in almost every case, it is the rules of the match that determine the winner, and this is under Mayweather’s rules.

But the reality is this fight is not as much boxing vs. MMA as the age-old of what is better between booking based on real sport credential or based on emotional fantasy. Unfortunately, the kind of attention this fight is getting and the public interest is one that greatly sways the reality of the modern fan into the latter camp.

For all the talk of UFC turning into pro wrestling, this has been the case in combat sports for a century, and based on the interest tonight, there is no sign at all that the public has changed.

There is a little known story, but this is actually not the first time Mayweather flirted with this kind of an idea. There was at least talk of a fight between Mayweather and Giorgio Petrosyan for May 3rd, 2014. Petrosyan at the time was the best kickboxer in the world.

Petrosyan was 76-1-2 in kickboxing, with his prior loss being six years earlier. But at a show in New York, Petrosyan was knocked out by Andy Ristie, and Mayweather lost interest in the gimmick fight, and fought Marcos Maidana on that date.

Another little known story is that Danny Hodge, before he became a pro wrestling superstar, but as an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling and undefeated three-time NCAA champion and arguably the most dominant college wrestler of all-time, went into pro boxing and there was talk of him getting a shot at then-champion Floyd Patterson.

But Patterson’s camp decided to go with Ingemar Johansson, for a 1959 fight at Yankee Stadium in New York, which Johansson won via third round knockout. Hodge had a 7-1 record at the time, but lost his next fight to Nino Valdes and never boxed again.

After two months of hype, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather will square off Saturday, August 26th, in Las Vegas, NV, in a boxing match.

The final hurdle: a weigh-in on Friday at 6 PM ET. The magic number for both men to hit is 154 pounds, the junior welterweight limit.

This will be McGregor’s first foray into boxing after a successful UFC run that brought him to prominence in the combat sports world. Mayweather (49-0) will be looking for his 50th professional victory, one that, if accomplished, will be sneered at by boxing media who see this fight as a farce. The fight is expected to set a gate record and compete for the all-time PPV sale record.

McGregor last competed in November 2016 by downing Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight title in Madison Square Garden. 

The particpants in the undercard will also weigh in Saturday.