By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor will have the privilege of fighting for the World Boxing Council Money Belt. The gold, diamond and emerald belt the WBC created just for the occasion of the Mayweather-McGregor fight. With no other world titles being on the line, the WBC stepped forward and created a special belt for the two popular fighters to battle over.
The WBC made a similar move in 2015 when they created the WBC Emerald belt for Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to fight over. What’s unclear is whether this new WBC Money Belt will be fought over in the future by top fighters. It kind of makes a mess of boxing if you get a sanctioning body creating new belts on a frequent basis. I’ve lost track of all the belts the WBC has made. For example, you’ve got the WBC Silver, Gold, Diamond, Emerald, and Eternal Champion. Adding he WBC Money Belt to that list seems fitting.
”The WBC is proud to present the ‘money belt’ which is without a question the most incredible unique piece ever made in the history of all sports,” said the WBC in a press release.
Mayweather previously beat Miguel Cotto to capture the WBC Diamond belt in 2012, and a year later, he beat Saul Canelo Alvarez to win the Gold Belt, and then finally the Emerald belt in his win over Manny Pacquiao. At some point the WBC needs to sit on the current belts and have them as the ones they give out.
If the WBC is going to constantly come up with new belts for fights between popular fighters that don’t have belts on the line, they mind up cheapening the whole idea behind the belts. It’s already looking bad with the sanctioning bodies having their own titles in the same weight class. The WBA has 2 champions for some of their weight classes instead of the customary one.
Here’s the stats for the new WBC Money Belt:
– 1.5 kilograms of 24 KT gold
– 3360 diamonds
– 600 sapphires
– 160 emeralds
– Crocodile leather
There’s no word of how much all those jewels and gold are valued at. It’s got to be worth quite a bit with all the diamonds and emeralds encrusted into the belt. It’s got to be worth quite a bit. I don’t know how the WBC is going to top this latest “Money Belt” in the future. It would be good to see the WBC go away from emphasizing valuable gold and gems for their belts and focus instead on making sure the belt has meaning.
The positive news that can be said about Mayweather vs. McGregor fighting over the WBC Money Belt is that the winner of the fight will have a beautiful belt to throw over their shoulder immediately after the fight. It’ll look good for the winner of the title to have a beautiful belt filled with gold and glittering jewels. The belt will be like a prop to help validate the winner of the Mayweather-McGregor fight to make them look really great in the eyes of the boxing and MMA fans. If the WBC is only going to have the WBC “Money Belt” on the line for great fights, it could be many years before they hand this thing out again.
McGregor says he’s never missed making weight
McGregor wants to assure the boxing and MMA fans that he WILL be making weight on Friday for his weigh-in with Mayweather. There’s been a lot of speculation that McGregor will not make weight. Mayweather is predicting that he won’t make the weight and he’ll need to pay a hefty fine. On Tuesday, Mayweather said he knows that McGregor is weighing 164 lbs. right now. Mayweather might be correct about that.
When the two fighters stood face to face on Wednesday for their final press conference, McGregor looked much bigger than Mayweather. Just eying it out, I would say McGregor outweighs Mayweather by at least 15 lbs. right now. That’s not good because Mayweather is likely right at the 154l weight limit. If McGregor is 15 lbs. heavier than him, then he’s going to need to really start draining down right now if he wants to avoid getting penalized for coming in overweight on Friday. Mayweather is saying that McGregor needs to get his millions ready to pay the fine.
“I’ve never missed weight in my life and it won’t be happening this time,” said McGregor. I’ve had my nutritionist practically living with me throughout camp. We are ready and feel great at the weight right now. The weight has been taken seriously and Floyd can keep wishing that I’ll miss weight.”
I don’t have much faith in McGregor being able to make the 154 lb. weight limit. He doesn’t even look like he’s stared cutting weight yet. His face doesn’t thin at all, and should be at this point, considering how big he is. Maybe McGregor will start to cut weight at the last day to lose it all at once. I don’t know how a person can lose 10 lbs. of water weight in one day though. I don’t think that’s possible for McGregor to do that, which is why I see it as important for him start losing weight right now.
It would be funny if McGregor intentionally misses weight in order to have a better chance of beating Mayweather. If the weight penalty isn’t too high, it might be worth it for McGregor to come in 10 lbs. over the weight limit on Friday so that he can be as big as a house on Saturday night. I don’t see how McGregor can beat Mayweather even if he comes into the weigh-in at 164.
Mayweather is still going to have too much hand speed and boxing ability for McGregor. When you don’t have any experience in the sport like McGregor, then you need to try and use any kind of advantages that you can get to beat your opponent. Coming over the weigh-in limit is an old tried and true method to try and beat someone that is better than you.