By Greg Houghton: What on earth have I just watched with the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor London press conference? I’m sitting here next to my girlfriend, someone I’m trying to get into boxing, we’ve spent the last few months studying Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Marvin Hagler’s punching power, Vasyl Lomachenko’s feet, Andre Ward’s reflexes and evasive skills, Sugar Ray Robinson’s movement, as well as revising great wars such as the Muhammad Ali Joe Frazier trilogy, the war between Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler. And now we’re here… watching this.
The boxing world has been somewhat skeptical about this fight for some time now, worried that it will dilute and damage the sport. But watching this London presser right now, it doesn’t feel like this event will threaten boxing at all, because this doesn’t appear to be the same sport. What is this?! It’s not quite boxing, not quite MMA. It’s like the lovechild of WWE wrestling and Dawson’s Creek. Scripted, acted out as directed and littered with the strangest trash talk and most peculiar insults I think I’ve ever heard. I’m confused by it, I hate it but yet I can’t take my eyes off it. I imagine this is how a moth feels when it repeatedly flies into a burning hot light bulb.
It’s slightly worrying that so many other potential boxing vs MMA matchups have been mentioned, with seemingly hundreds of MMA fighters wanting to jump on the same band wagon. Most recently unbeaten British MMA star Michael ‘Venom’ Page has spoken of the difficulty he gave James DeGale and Chris Eubank Jr. in sparring, and how he aims to conquer both sports at the top level. McGregor’s performance in the ring on August 26th could hugely dictate the possibility of these prospective events happening.
Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Brett Hart. I’m sitting here impatiently waiting for one of these guys to step into the ring and reveal to the crowd that they are Connor’s father. With that, the crowd will scream and the guy standing by security will feel the lactic acid in his arms burn from holding up the sign towards the crowd that reads “SCREAM”. One thing that is evident from this event however, is that Connor McGregor would have a much better career in the WWE than Floyd Mayweather. It’s like Connor was born for this, and Floyd seems to be really struggling to bring coolness to the character that he is playing. Thinking back to the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao pressers of recent years…. Floyd is really working hard here!
And so it is, ambivalence. Part of you hates everything this spectacle stands for and the other half is eager to see two of the greatest athletes in combat sports compete once again. As for the event itself, after the soap opera build up it’s difficult to visualize this actually being a fight. It feels more like we’ll witness a staged event with the loser having a plastic chair wrapped around his head, being pinned to the canvas, the referee counting to three before the winners theme tune blasts through the T-Mobile Arena sound system. Ricky Hatton recently stated “If I couldn’t lay a glove on Floyd and neither could Oscar De La Hoya, it’s hard to see how this will even be a fight”, and you have to agree with him. The fact that so many people care who’ll win and how is a huge credit to the promotional skills of Mayweather and McGregor who have more than played their characters roles in the build up to this fight.
For the measly price of $100, this fight is all yours to watch in your living room. Let’s hope there are no wrestling events running that night however, as anyone who hits the wrong channel on their remote could have a very hard time telling the difference.