“Round One definitely goes to Mayweather” – Brendan Schaub
Ahead of the much-anticipated and first press conference on the Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour, former UFC star Brendan Schaub was adamant that Conor McGregor had a great chance of shocking the world.
Schaub talked ‘The Notorious’ up something fierce and as much as his Showtime co-hosts dismissed his claims about the fight, they did not for a second deny that McGregor would boss the press conference.
40 minutes later and all had utterly changed. McGregor had been comprehensively upstaged by Floyd Mayweather Jr and ordered about the stage.
McGregor will be absolutely seething as he travels to Toronto for the second leg of the tour, tonight.
The conference started with McGregor out on his Toblerone at the front of the stage, milking the adulation but looking around wondering what was going on. The Dubliner usually shows up fashionably, and unfashionably, late but it seemed as if he was five minutes early for this one.
As the Sinead O’Connor version of ‘The Foggy Dew’ played out, McGregor posed for pictures, spread his arms wide, soaked the scenes up, danced a little, shadow boxed, looked around for guidance and did it all again.
Mayweather entered second, as he will on August 26. His posse were big and boisterous. He was kitted out in a tracksuit Apollo Creed would have been proud of [if Ivan Drago hadn’t seen to him] and the first face-off saw him take absolutely no bullshit.
As McGregor yakked and preened, he stared dead ahead. You’re in my world now, boy.
McGregor, and the rest of us, were forced to sit through three box-ticking speeches and a pick-me-up intro from Dana White before his chance arrived. He later admitted that he didn’t know he was going to be stuck at a lectern and asked to address both Mayweather and the audience.
His speech lasted just over five and a half minutes and, at times, felt like McGregor had been shunted to the front of class after an all-night study session and asked to enlighten us all about traction engines.
There was a nice mention of his recently born son, Conor Jr, and a brief history lesson on boxer James Toney’s ill-fated MMA career but McGregor struggled to land any telling blows. His best line was about the ‘F**k you’ on his pinstripe suit but that turned out to be him merely stating a fact.
The suit pic.twitter.com/jSqV9m2eNK
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) July 11, 2017
“So,” he declared, 25 minutes after the world tour started, “let’s get this world tour started. It’s going to be fun.”
Mayweather, who had been rooting around in a backpack during some of McGregor’s opening salvo, then had his fun. What followed over the next 10 minutes was a drawn out, fascinating masterclass from the old dog.
‘Money’ dominated proceedings as he started with call and response hollers to his own posse and the pockets of support he had with the Staples Cemter (sic). While McGregor was planted to the spot, Mayweather would run his mouth and take a walk. Come back for more then strut away.
“We knew I was the A side, that’s why this bitch had to come to the boxing ring…
“He looks good for a 7-figure fighter, he looks good for a 8-figure fighter but motherf**ker, I’m a 9-figure fighter!”
Mayweather was peak Richard Pryor to McGregor’s garish tribute to Mrs Brown’s Boys.
“I didn’t do this by myself, this man played a major part in this fight. But August 26… that’s yo’ ass.”
McGregor was trying to talk back but his microphone was getting constantly cut off. Whether Showtime planned this or whether it was just a shoddy production, the Dubliner was royally screwed either way.
Still, for a man who has made his name dominating press conferences and verbally eviscerating fellow fighters,
Most of the telling jabs were landed by the 49-0 boxer – mocking McGregor’s $3m purse for his last fight, calling him ‘Mr. Tap-out’ and peppering him with ‘little b**ch’ comments.
The backpack was requested, and fetched, and we all wondered what Mayweather was going to produce. A framed picture of Nate Diaz, perhaps? A U2 album to smash? Instead, it was a cheque for $100m that Mayweather says he got for simply signing on to fight.
‘Money’ then chose to end the night on his terms. After telling us all that God only made one thing perfect in this world – his boxing record – he declared, “Don’t we gotta pose the fighters now? face to face!”
He strode to the front of the stage and, three times, beckoned for McGregor to follow him. What could the UFC star do but obey?
Credit: Showtime/UFCThe whole affair was very similar to Eddie Alvarez freezing in the headlights as the McGregor bandwagon rolled into UFC 205 before taking his lightweight belt.
McGregor was out of his comfort zone and it showed. He spoke much better in the media Q&A after the press conference but the majority of fight fans will have missed that. What they saw was a one-sided power play from one of the best promoters and boxers in the game.
Toronto is next and McGregor will be much better prepared.
He would want to be. He needs to be.
