This could have been great. This would have been unbelievable. This SHOULD have been sensational.
Conor McGregor’s professional boxing debut, against none other that Floyd Mayweather Jr [49-0], is just over two months away and details are beginning to emerge on the fight’s promotional activities and the week of the event.
There will be a world tour, kicking off in July, to promote what could well be the biggest ever pay-per-view bout in boxing history. Las Vegas bookmakers are currently offering over/under bets of 4.9 million PPV buys.
McGregor’s legions of Irish fans will have been keen awaiting that tour and anticipating the UFC champion’s hometown of Dublin being one of the stopping off points.
McGregor has had audiences in Dublin rapt before with his trash-talking, tub-thumping displays. Former UFC featherweight champion José Aldo will certainly never forget his trip to Dublin’s Convention Centre, when McGregor stole his belt and held it aloft in triumph.
That is why there is a strong likelihood that Dublin was vetoed from the world tour list of likely destinations. On the latest edition of MMA Beat, Luke Thomas and Ariel Helwani discussed the impending press conferences:
Thomas: Floyd is no dummy but I wonder how much he is shielding himself in those [fight] contracts from these types of possibilities. Conor will find a way around it, no matter what… When it comes to the mind games and Floyd versus Conor, Conor is the unequivocal champ. But Floyd is a shrewd, shrewd guy and it would be very, very foolish to underestimate him.
Helwani: Well, the media tour hasn’t been announced just yet. They are going to go to several cities and we’ll see what they decide on.
“But I have been initially told was that they have to go to neutral cities. So I don’t think they are going to Dublin, I don’t think they are going to Vegas and Grand Rapids [where Mayweather has residences].
“I don’t know if that’s a Floyd request because I’m not sure how well Floyd would be received in Dublin but I though that was very interesting.”
What a pain that will be for the many, many Irish fans that would have flooded to a McGregor-Mayweather press event and for those that could not afford a ticket, and trip, to the fight itself in Las Vegas.
Of the cities fans can definitely mark down for the tour, Los Angeles, New York and London are all but certainties. After that, four or five more destinations will be announcement in the coming weeks.
