The stage could not be bigger when Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather take part in a scheduled 12 round boxing match in Las Vegas this Saturday, August 26th. It is being called the “Money Fight” and it is the culmination of incredibly hard work and an unapologetic promotion that has redefined how future sporting events will be sold to the public. While McGregor and Mayweather will be taking part in a regular old boxing match, we must not forget that these two self-promotional geniuses took over when it comes to selling this fight to the viewing public.
Like any great entertainer, McGregor and Mayweather used their influences to help promote the Money Fight into what is expected to be the highest grossing fight in the history of pay per view. When you watch Conor McGregor promote a fight, it is easy to see from his walk, his talk, and his dress that McGregor was obviously inspired by the likes of Vince McMahon and the Notorious Big. Floyd Mayweather is a tiny Ric Flair. Both men clearly aim to be a modern day Muhammad Ali. Mix all of the years of research done, not watching fight footage, but analyzing hype footage from all of these legends, and you get two guys who flat out know how to promote a fight to perfection.
What we have also learned is that you do not need a traditional things like championships or personal grudges to get the public riled up for a big time pay per view fight. The genius of the Money Fight is that it took a concept out of thin air and made people believe that this is something they need to see. Boxing purists will watch to see Mayweather put MMA in it’s place. McGregor fans will watch because they 100% believe in the young Irishman’s ability to deliver on his promises. Most people are going to watch just so they can say they saw it all go down.
The fight itself is inconsequential. Both men will be rich and both men will still have their followers believing in them. McGregor is already a folk hero, but he will be an international icon that will not soon be forgotten if he does the impossible and indeed knocks out “The Best Ever” in his first boxing match. At the end of the day Floyd Mayweather only cares about money, and even if this unlikely scenario where he is 49-1 happens, he will still be the same cultural icon he is today. It is a win-win-win fight.
McGregor wins because he is now the most famous mixed martial artist of all time and can do whatever he wants to do next. Mayweather wins because he is collecting a nine figure paycheck and giving boxing the last cultural event it will have for a long time, if ever again. And the public wins because we were given over a year of excitement, hype, and trash talk that will be quoted until the end of time. So when people ask me my prediction for the Money Fight, I guess I can tell you that my guess is Mayweather wins by TKO because McGregor is not a boxer, but I don’t know if I really believe that. It just seems logical. But I do not want to be logical when predicting an illogical fight. I want to believe that McGregor can knock out Mayweather and give us the most insane and memorable sports moment of all time. Even though I am struggling to find the guts to say it really can happen, I do know that I believe enough to not care that the Money Fight is probably an unfair fight. I believe enough in the hype. I believe enough to buy that pay per view twice!