Issue 144

August 2016

Why McGregor vs. Mayweather would have been great for MMA and boxing

Nick Peet, FO’s editor makes the case for combat sports’ biggest fight

We’ve been here before. Around 14,000 of us crammed into Boston’s TD Garden back in the summer of 2010 to witness MMA vs. boxing on the biggest stage for the first time in North America. It was a complete disaster. As expected, Randy Couture beat the crap out of James Toney until we all got bored and the third man finally intervened. It was a mismatch of the highest order.

While mixed martial artists grappling in Metamoris and the ADCCs often intrigue, standup crossover fights rarely live up to expectations. One guy is a specialist, the other guy is the circus act. The days of one style facing off against another are distant memories for a reason – competition is what matters. True competition drives PPV sales.

So when the world was being teased with a matchup between the two most bankable fight sports athletes on the planet this spring, my first response was to roll my eyes and shake my head. After all, Conor McGregor couldn’t outbox Nate Diaz in his last outing, so how the hell was he going to go 10 or 12 rounds with Floyd Mayweather, the greatest boxer of this era.

At first, like many of you, I wrote it off as another ‘Notorious’ sound bite. Another headline for the mainstream media to drive web clicks or retweets. But then I discovered it was recently retired 49-0 ‘Money’ Mayweather that was driving the hype train.

Perhaps it shows how far mixed martial arts has come in just the last few years that, driven by the UFC’s groundbreaking deal with Fox, even the most successful sportsman on the planet is leaning on MMA to promote one last nine-figure paycheck.

“He needs me, I don’t need him,” McGregor told ESPN, amid rumors the Irishman had recruited boxing coach Freddie Roach. 

“Who else can he fight? He fights someone else in the boxing realm and all of a sudden the pay goes from $100m to $15m. So, he needs me. If he wants to talk, we can talk, but it’s me who’s in control here.”

And McGregor was right. Who has Mayweather got left to face in boxing? He’s beaten all his greatest rivals during a stellar 20-year career, won championships in five weight divisions and become arguably the greatest defensive boxer the sport has ever known. Indeed, he is one of the greatest boxers the world has ever known. But he’s always been driven by cash. He simply can’t get enough of it.

Mayweather is also one win away from topping the great Rocky Marciano’s iconic 49-0 unbeaten record. That’s got to be eating away at him. If not now, it will in the future.

Like McGregor, Mayweather has the star power to be able to select any opponent he desires and change their bum life, to use a phrase coined by MMA’s own golden boy, offering any rival fighter the biggest paycheck they’ll ever earn. The problem is, nobody in boxing draws the crowds like McGregor does. And here lies the paradigm shift in fight sports.

Boxing is now looking to MMA for the biggest pay-per-view fight in history, and that’s why this colossal mismatch may one day come off. And it’s win-win for MMA. So what if Conor gets outboxed by ‘Money’? Boxing is just one facet of his game. 

All this fight would do is promote Conor and the UFC to the boxing masses, and prove to the world that MMA is fight sports entertainment.

Biggest Draw

McGregor leads PPV game

Since Mayweather’s fight with Manny Pacquiao in May 2015, no boxing event has matched McGregor’s pay-per-view performance. The best effort was Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto, which drew 900,000 buys in November.