The hype surrounding the biggest spectacle in combat sports arrives in Toronto this afternoon.
Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and UFC champ Conor McGregor will stage a news conference at the Budweiser Stage as part of a multi-city media tour promoting their Aug. 26 boxing showdown. The fighters started the tour yesterday in Los Angeles, where they traded boasts and profanities while the Staples Center?s pro-McGregor crowd showered Mayweather with boos.
The Star will stream today?s event live starting at 5:30 p.m.
As a contest for purists, Mayweather-McGregor doesn?t pass muster.
Mayweather is 49-0 as a boxer, and a future hall-of-famer with wins over greats like Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. McGregor is 21-3 as a mixed martial arts fighter and once held two UFC titles simultaneously, but has never boxed professionally. Video of pro boxer Chris van Heerden battering McGregor in a sparring session have circulated online for months.
But as a spectacle, the matchup between the two best self-promoters in combat sport has prompted curiosity and could generate a lot of cash.
Mayweather?s earning power skyrocketed in 2007, when he unveiled his current persona ? a cocky, ostentatious heel named ?Money? Mayweather ? then dethroned junior middleweight champ De La Hoya. The three top-selling pay-per-views in history feature Mayweather in the main event.
McGregor, meanwhile, used a string of big wins and a penchant for trash talk to turn himself into the UFC?s biggest-selling star. The two-division champ has headlined the four best-selling UFC pay-per-view events.
