However unlikely, however illogical, despite the many barriers and the skepticism from those on both sides of the aisle, a boxing match between UFC star Conor McGregor and retired boxing star Floyd Mayweather Jr. is becoming more and more inevitable with each passing day.
The lure of those three million, perhaps more, pay-per-view buys is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, even for the well-heeled Mayweather.
A few hours after McGregor conducted a pay-per-view interview ? yes, a pay-per-view interview that pushed the possibility of the fight happening a little further down the tracks ? Mayweather showed up Saturday at the MGM Grand to do his part.
Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz were fighting for the WBA featherweight title in front of a raucous, passionate crowd of 10,085 at the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday. Frampton is Irish, like McGregor, and so the fight was broadcast to Ireland and the United Kingdom on Sky Sports 1. Showtime broadcast the card in the U.S.
Mayweather showed up precisely as the co-feature between Mikey Garcia and Dejan Zlaticanin ended, which gave him the opportunity to play ringmaster yet again. The estimable Jim Gray of Showtime got Mayweather first, and asked him if he wanted the fight.
Mayweather smiled that mega-watt smile of his and flung his head back as if he hadn?t been expecting the question.
Does he want the fight? Duh.
Of course he wants the fight. The entire reason he showed up at a fight card he wasn?t promoting was precisely to go on television, particularly in the U.K., where McGregor fans and possibly McGregor himself were watching, and make his points.
And he didn?t exactly pour ice water on the idea, either.
?I believe the fight can happen,? Mayweather told Gray. ?Like I said before, he is a tough competitor. He has proved throughout the years in the UFC that he can fight standing up. We?ll have to see what the future holds.? View photos
UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor said his next bout will be a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. (Getty Images) More
He wants the fight because he can make a boatload of money and because he believes it will be an easy bout. McGregor has no boxing experience ? neither amateur nor pro ? and Mayweather is already a massive favorite in sports books.
Earlier in the day, McGregor did his part to move the needle, starting with an Instagram post in which he exclaimed, ?[Expletive] the UFC.?
That was no random post, however. It was a very strategic move by McGregor and it was meant for Mayweather?s ears. He was letting Mayweather know that he, too, is his own boss.
Mayweather has used this, ?I?m my own boss,? concept to great effect in the nearly 10 years since he defeated Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand Garden to leapfrog the Golden Boy and become the sport?s biggest draw.
He?s used it repeatedly to give himself an edge in negotiations with every fighter he?s fought subsequently, including Manny Pacquiao. In the long, slow slog toward a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight on May 2, 2015, Mayewather repeatedly pointed out he was free to choose what to do on his own, but that Pacquiao had to answer to promoter Bob Arum. He said it often enough and loudly enough that eventually it became accepted as true, whether or not Arum held that sway over Pacquiao.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which came long after it should have happened, sold 4.6 million pay-per-views, and shows the kind of market that may exist for a Mayweather-McGregor fight.
McGregor did his part, though, to show he?s his own boss, too, and thus tried to level the playing field somewhat in the negotiations. Mayweather has three massive pay-per-view successes that McGregor can?t approach: 4.6 million sales vs. Pacquiao; 2.5 million vs. De La Hoya and 2.2 million vs. Canelo Alvarez.
McGregor has been over a million in each of his last three fights, and Mayweather?s last fight, against Andre Berto in 2015, was a relative flop, selling just 400,000.
