Mayweather vs McGregor: Behind the scenes of boxing’s billion-dollar circus
Inside the box office, one ballsy Irish fan tries to scrounge a ticket to the hottest show of the night by asking the clerk to Google his name – ‘then see if you can turn me away’ – while another sobs about flying over from Dublin under the impression that tickets were available at the door. Outside, an American broadcaster mimes a cutting motion at his neck to cancel the recording on a piece to camera that was drowned out by green-clad chants of ‘pay your taxes’.
I don’t know what I was expecting from the fourth and final leg of Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor’s World Tour at Wembley Arena, but a cross between a Donald Trump rally and a Jeremy Kyle paternity test was not it. First Las Vegas, then Toronto, before New York and London. Four stops, three countries, and one massive circus.
If you’ve been living on the moon for the past few months, one of boxing’s greatest ever fighters, the 49-0 Mayweather, is taking on UFC’s most famous son, McGregor, in what is being hailed by some as a superfight for the ages and disregarded by even more as a pointless spectacle that devalues both sports.
On August 26, McGregor swaps the octagon for the ring in what he has dubbed ‘the greatest fight of all time’
The Irishman, a mixed martial artist, cannot kick, knee or elbow and is consigned to just four walls, not the eight of the octagon. He can only use his fists against perhaps the best defensive boxer of all time. Every ounce of logic suggests he doesn’t have a chance. ‘But imagine if he does,’ says one McGregor supporter. ‘It would only take one good punch. Just imagine.’
It feels like an internet chat room argument played out in front of millions, with cautious estimates predicting the fight will rake in 50 per cent more money than the $600m Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao made, the most lucrative fight in history. It is Usain Bolt against Mo Farah, over 100 metres. It is the All Blacks against the New England Patriots, with a football. It is Michael Phelps against Ben Ainslie, without a boat. And it is running two hours late.
The whispers in the corridors of the arena are that McGregor is still sleeping off jetlag and as the wait for his arrival drags on, bold predictions are made in the press room. ‘Brexit happened, Trump happened. No-one thought they were possible either,’ says one reporter, while another weighs up how much money David v Goliath would have made today – and whether the latter should have had the foresight to ban slingshots.
Something about the whole atmosphere is surreal. A sell-out 10,000-strong crowd packing out Wembley just to see half an hour of verbal sparring ahead of a fight that is 42 days away. That feels like an especially long time when the content of the press conferences has descended from mere pantomime into something darker. McGregor has been accused of racism, repeatedly referring to Mayweather as ‘boy’ and describing Rocky III as ‘the one with the dancing monkeys in the gym’.
Mayweather, more mellow and considered in his pre-showdown media briefing than the screeching façade he adorns on stage, gave an impassioned speech about the lack of respect from his opponent. But that was undone around an hour later when he directed homophobic slurs at McGregor.
Mayweather accuses McGregor of racism
‘Racism still exists. It’s all about treating people like you want to be treated. To get respect you must give respect. He totally disrespected black women. He called black people monkeys. Then he spoke disrespectfully to my mother and my daughter. There are certain levels you don’t stoop to and certain levels you just don’t go to. I love everybody from all walks of life.’
That particular language and rhetoric has threatened to overshadow what has been an otherwise intriguing – and often quite bizarre – series of exchanges. On Friday night, both men entered to flashing lights and booming music in front of a raucous and, shall we say, well hydrated crowd. It was like Michael Jordan entering the court to take on the Monstars in Space Jam, only the basketball match had been replaced by a sort of comedy roast face-off; a duel for the banter generation.
McGregor on who 'won' the World Tour
‘It became something different from before, like a battle almost, a verbal type of battle. And people were even scoring it. If we are going to do that, then f*** it let’s do that: I smoked those four rounds. On the first round, the first stop [in Las Vegas], they set me up. No music, told me nothing. Rolled in, got it together, handled it. Went viral. That’s a 10-9 to me. Toronto was a 10-7, he was dropped twice. Toronto was just a wipe out. Yesterday [in New York] he was alright, he was good. Maybe we both needed a little bit of rest. Then again, looking back at the images – with money raining down on me in a fur coat – they’re iconic sporting images. They’re not even sporting images. They’re just iconic images. I still think I won that stop. And then tonight he got smoked again. I think 4-0 is fair, 3-1 if you want to be generous – but we’re not being generous here. This is a ruthless business and I am the most ruthless.’
In some ways it feels like the past four days have been the real event, the only platform on which they have a level footing. It has also felt like a battle for the souls of their respective sports. Mayweather believes there is an absence of trash-talking and theatre in boxing nowadays. ‘We need guys to be more aggressive with each other,’ he says, with the tone of the tour a world apart from the respect and good will Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua shared.
For UFC, the worry is that McGregor – the sport’s biggest magnet – could outgrow them, and make other fighters restless. ‘For the next two years I’m going to have every guy in the UFC wanting to box somebody,’ joked White. Away from the arena lights and in front on the media, McGregor, in full flow, unfiltered and uncensored, is a genuine delight.
