Sports Then and Now

The hype is in full swing for the Floyd Mayweather fight against Conor McGregor.

Michael Page, the British fighter, has stated the obvious: if Conor McGregor wins the upcoming August fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. it will be the biggest upset in the history of sport. He went on to say that the last time the world experienced anything like this win would be was when Leicester won the Premier League, and that McGregor winning would overshadow that, in just one boxing match, in the unlikely event that he managed to best Mayweather.

Mayweather Lets McGregor Fight with Gloves He’s Used to

Mayweather has been keeping his mouth shut, relatively speaking, in the build-up to the Vegas showdown, but he has recently dropped a bombshell: he has told McGregor to forget about the ten ounce gloves he should wear for the fight, and stick to the eight ounce ones he’s more used to instead!

The Buzz of the Press Conference Showdowns

McGregor has claimed that he emerged the winner in each round of his promotional tour alongside the undefeated Mayweather, but one of the biggest criticisms he has had to contend with were allegations of racism due to more-insensitive-than-usual comments he made. Australian sports betting sites and those around the world have been lapping up every minute of the sensational exchanges, but there are many people that feel that McGregor went too far a number of times.

The claims arose after McGregor told Mayweather to dance for him, calling him boy, as well, a moniker with severe racial overtones. His attempts to diffuse the furore that resulted only added gasoline to the fire, with a further uproar resulting from McGregor’s statement that he was half-black, below the waist. He also referred to black people as dancing monkeys when discussing the third instalment of the Rocky films on a chat show.

Trash Talk Started Early On

McGregor had previously laid into Mayweather about reports over the latter’s unpaid taxes, with the IRS claiming that the boxer owes them more than US$20 million in unpaid taxes from 2015. This was the year that Mayweather enjoyed his biggest payday to date thanks to the blockbuster bout against Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather’s rather tame response was that his domain was intact, but this affected McGregor’s taunting not a jot, and he continued to tease the champion about the money he allegedly owes the US government. McGregor even commented on what Mayweather was wearing, saying that the boxer could obviously not afford a suit, and that the money he owed was the reason behind the fact that he was dressed in just a tracksuit.

McGregor has promised that Mayweather will be knocked out inside of four rounds, and has warned the fighter that he has never experienced the strength, ferocity, and movement that McGregor intends to bring to the ring.

Mayweather’s response was predictably tame, albeit expletive-laden, and he simply retorted that he was going to thrash McGregor, albeit in far more explosive terminology.

The verbal jousting is set to be replaced by physical interaction in Las Vegas in August, and the world is waiting anxiously to see if McGregor will make boxing history by being as unprepared as he is for a fight against one of the best fighters the world has ever seen.