Floyd Mayweather lands a right hand on the chin of Conor McGregor - Photo by Beckham pz10, CC BY
Mayweather v McGregor: Is The Rematch On?
Conor McGregor is one of the biggest names in the sport of UFC, but unless you’ve managed to stay away from social media in the last few weeks, you’ll probably already know that he suffered a shock knockout defeat from Dustin Poirier at UFC Fight Island in Abu Dhabi in January.
A supposed easy victory from McGregor was expected to line up a crossover fight with the boxer Manny Pacquiao, however defeat means that those ideas could have been thrown out of the window, but not at the loss of instigating some former opponents.
Floyd Mayweather has already met McGregor in the ring before and wasted no time in throwing a barrage of abuse towards the Irishman after his surprise defeat. That war of words has set the rumour mill into overdrive with reports circulating of a rematch between the pair.
Mayweather’s abuse wasn’t just playground banter between two friends either, with the American icon calling McGregor a ‘Conman Artist McLoser’ and essentially made light of him having the opportunity to face eight-weight icon Pacquiao, who Mayweather beat in 2015.
Mayweather stated:
“Just know, that bum will never be me or be on my level. I’m just built differently, my mindset is on another planet, my skills are second to none, I’m a natural born winner and yes I talk a lot of trash, but every time I back it up.
“Connor cannot even win in his own sport, but talking about coming back to boxing to fight Pacquiao
“Nobody wants to see that, it’s like my leftovers eating leftovers”.
Mayweather v McGregor 1.0
Mayweather halted McGregor on his first try as a pro fighter back in August 2017 following a 16-month build-up to the blockbuster event.
The 10th round stoppage of the ‘Notorious’ one would make Mayweather 50-0 in his career, rounding up an eye-watering £250million with all of the pay-per-view sales figures totted up.
The five-time champ backed himself almost immediately to get the success late in the fight, which caused a surge in bets at the bookies on him winning and a whole host of free bets being offered out by certain bookmakers. Promotions are likely to be just as popular for any kind of rematch, and some betting firms are thinking about offering money-back deals if Mayweather doesn’t win the fight.
The same firms have also priced up the possible bout between McGregor and Pacquiao, despite it looking unlikely to take place at any time in the near future. As expected given his recent record, the Irishman has been installed as a 5/1 shot to win the fight, while the legendary boxer in Manny Pacquiao is a heavy favourite with most bookmakers at odds of around 1/7.
Cruising To A Bruising
Debate consistently appears to chase after the two fighters and despite breaking TV industry and PPV records, gossip and rumours still circulate about Mayweather’s bank balance.
The possibility for Mayweather to make another ridiculous payday by meeting McGregor from practically nowhere isn’t impossible and would arguably be ‘pain free income’ for the pound-for-pound boxing legend.
It is important to remember that the first MayMac hybrid event nearly sold out the 16,000-seater T-Mobile Stadium in Las Vegas, clocking up around £50million in VIP ticket deals.
Per recent reports in the media, with the pandemic not slowing down in terms of a return to sell-out arenas or stadiums soon, the possibility of a cruise ship with a couple of super-rich fans purchasing cash tickets has been rumoured.
McGregor cruised into Yas Island for the end of the week’s session on a 300ft yacht and an enormous isolated air pocket would limit Covid-19 dangers.
Anthony Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned over a year ago that he had been looking at the possibility of a boat facilitating AJ’s December fight with Kubrat Pulev, which eventually occurred inside Wembley Arena.
