Floyd Mayweather Jr. sparring again, talking Conor McGregor

By Boxing News - 04/26/2020 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather  Jr. posted a video of himself sparring this weekend on social and talking about Conor McGregor. The fact that the former five-division world champion Mayweather Jr. (50-0, 27 KOs) is now sparring, it’s a clear sign that he plans on resuming his career in some fashion or another.

Mayweather Jr. preparing for another fight against the UFC star McGregor, 31, would interest some boxing fans. The main problem with Mayweather fighting McGregor again is he already easily beat him by a 10th round TKO on August 26, 2017, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mayweather and McGregor haven’t stayed active

Regrettably, McGregor hasn’t done anything to redeem himself since his loss to Mayweather, as he’s only fought twice in the UFC since then. McGregor made a lot of money in the fight with Mayweather, which gives him an excuse for not staying active with his career.

Mayweather hasn’t been active either, fighting just once against little known 22-year-old Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in 2018. With Mayweather and McGregor both having stalled their careers, a rematch between them won’t attract the same kind of interest as the first fight.

Mayweather vs. McGregor brought in 4.3 million pay-per-view buys in 2017. Mayweather made $300 million+ for the fight, and McGregor $100 million. From that standpoint, even if a rematch between the two brings in half as many PPV buys, Mayweather could make over $100 million and McGregor $50 million. However, that’s assuming that the fight sells for 100 bucks per household on pay-per-view.

YouTube video

This not a good time for a pay-per-view event

With so many unemployed people needing money to pay their rent and mortgage, as well as to purchase food, it would seem a poorly thought out idea to stage a Mayweather-McGregor rematch in 2020 or 2021. If they’re going to put that fight on, they need to wait until the global pandemic ends, which is hard to know right now. If this thing lasts as long as the 1918 pandemic, we could be dealing with it for three years.

Another big problem with Mayweather and McGregor fighting in 2020 is there’s currently a travel ban, and that’ll present the fight taking place. McGregor won’t be able to come over to the U.S from Ireland, and neither will many fans from the UK.

Mayweather said after his fight with McGregor that he was retiring, and that was it. But apparently, he’s thinking come back for one more match.

“This was my last fight. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, for sure, I chose the right dance partner to dance with. Conor McGregor, you are a hell of a champion.” Mayweather said after his win over McGregor, “He’s a tough competitor, and I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see.

Contrary to what Mayweather says about him and McGregor giving the fans what “they wanted to see,” that didn’t happen. Mayweather-McGregor was a boring fight. McGregor gassed out after four rounds and had little to offer from that point on.

From rounds five to nine, McGregor would rush to the center of the ring and throw a lot of punches for the first 30 seconds. At that point, McGregor looked exhausted, and Mayweather would then calmly pepper him with single shots and fight in slow motion. It seemed to many boxing fans like Mayweather carried McGregor to make sure the fight went into the later rounds.

What McGregor needs is to start fighting boxers when the lockdown ends to show the boxing fans that he’s not just looking for an easy payday for another non-competitive fight against Mayweather.

Mayweather should give the fans what they want

Fans don’t want to see another expensive money grab involving McGregor and Mayweather and getting poor value for the money they spent. At the time of the stoppage in the 10th, Mayweather was ahead by the scores 87–83, 89–82, and 89–81.

If Mayweather does come out of retirement, boxing fans would like to see him face a professional boxer, not another MMA guy with zero skills like McGregor or Khabib. Fans want to see Mayweather fight Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence Jr., or Canelo Alvarez.

While it would be asking too much for Mayweather to fight Canelo at this point, but it wouldn’t for him to take on 41-year-old Pacquiao in a rematch or Spence Jr. Mayweather beat Pacquiao by a 12 round decision in 2015, and a lot of fans were angry because it was a boring fight.

Mayweather boxed from the outside against a passive-looking Pacquiao, who revealed afterward that he had fought with a shoulder injury. Like with the McGregor fight, fans paid $100 per household to watch the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight on pay-per-view. In both events, the undercard fights were weak.

These are the undercard fights for Mayweather vs. McGregor in 2017:

  • Badou Jack vs. Nathan Cleverly
  • Gervonta Davis vs. Francisco Fonseca
  • Yordenis Ugas vs. Thomas Dulorme
  • Andrew Tabiti vs. Steve Cunningham
  • Juan Heraldez vs. Jose Miguel Borrego
  • Kevin Newman II vs. Mark Anthony Hernandez
  • Savannah Marshall vs. Sydney LeBlanc