Yesterday, you'll have seen plenty of headlines revolving around a megafight between superstars of fighting sport, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.
Almost every outlet known to man decided to run with the story presumably because it had two headline acts going toe-to-toe in a fight that would draw in the biggest crowd any sport has ever seen.
Reports suggested the Las Vegas super-fight would generate £1 billion in revenue (off the back of what McGregor said this fight would be worth), with undefeated boxing champ Mayweather taking home something like £100 million and UFC loudmouth champ McGregor just £7 million, according to The Sun.
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Now, people with functioning brain cells would probably have noticed a red flag at that point. But the way media works is that once a story picks up ahead of steam, people just roll with it. And that's exactly what happened yesterday.
'According to sources', both parties just needed to agree on the fees and sign the paperwork and it'd all be confirmed - that's about as good as saying 'they just need to organise the whole thing and it's on.'
Images via PA
These sources also claimed Mayweather was so mad at the Irishman for claiming he'd knock the boxer out in 30 seconds that he's become obsessed with making The Notorious eat his words. The source also said McGregor would need to drop around 25lbs for the fight.
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The more you read, the more ridiculously unbelievable the fight gets. And I don't mean unbelievable as a superlative, I mean it like, not believable. Surly, there's no way McGregor would drop 25lbs just to prove a point to a guy in a different sport for the sake of a payday, not while he has his UFC career to resurrect following that embarrassing defeat to Nate Diaz.
Just recently Mayweather did hint at a return to the ring, not really giving too much away but, again, that's still not enough to actually give any credibility to the reports.
One person who would be in the know about this kind of thing is Ariel Helwani, who works for mmafighting.com. If you've been following him on Twitter for any amount of time, you know that this guy knows his MMA and the UFC inside out.
He simply had this to say on the matter...
But there is another twist in the tale. Floyd Mayweather Sr., speaking at the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, said his son has been organising a fight and it's against 'some MMA fighter'.
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When pressed whether it was McGregor, Mayweather Sr. said:
No matter the ramblings of Mayweather's corner, there is still the matter of McGregor's UFC contract to get around. And UFC President Dana White did all he could to play down the reports yesterday, telling the Los Angeles Times:
"McGregor-Mayweather? No. It'd be very hard to pull off. I've heard Floyd is on a worldwide vacation on Mayweather Air spending millions in every country he visits."
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Will this fight happen? Possibly. Will this fight happen any time soon? Probably not. There are way too many obstacles in the way of this happening and from a fan's point of view, there are other fights they'd rather see these two superstars in, than one involving the both of them.
I'd rather see Mayweather take on Gennady Golovkin (despite how unlikely it is because of the weight difference) and I'd definitely want to see McGregor vs Diaz 2, before I have to watch these two line their pockets for what will ultimately be a disappointing spectacle - but that's just one man's opinion.
What's yours?
Words by George Pavlou
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Featured images via PA
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Conor Mcgregor, Boxing, Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather
