What do the oddsmakers have to say about the fight?
Global betting site Bovada lists Mayweather around a -450 favourite while McGregor is around a +325 underdog. (Bettors needs to place $450 on Mayweather to get win $100 back, while a $100 wager on McGregor will pay off with $325.)
Most oddsmakers believe Mayweather is an easy winner and should be favoured by a much bigger margin, but have had to cut odds to try and balance their books. Should McGregor knock out Mayweather in the early rounds, Las Vegas bookmakers would lose millions of dollars in the biggest single event loss in the history of sports betting. McGregor fans have flooded sports books with smaller bets while big-money wagers — including a couple at $1 million or more — have come in late on Mayweather. A fight that began with Mayweather an 11-1 favourite is now around 5-1 or even less.
“This isn’t professional money, just the regular Joe,”said William Hill oddsmaker Nick Bogdanovich. “The butcher and the barber are putting their $100 on McGregor and it’s added up.”
What about some prop bets?
How long will it take Demi Lovato to sing the national anthem? (The over-under is one minute, 54 seconds.) Will Lil Wayne, wear a shirt during the fight walkout? (+130 if you think he won’t.) How many tweets with President Donald Trump post on Saturday? (The over-under is 6.5.)
If McGregor is the biggest and best active star in UFC, why is Mayweather such an overwhelming favourite?
In 140 characters or less: The bout is contested in Mayweather’s sport, under his sport’s rules.
If the two were to meet in UFC’s octagon, the odds of Mayweather making it past the first round would be astronomical. In virtually all instances when boxers did fight under mixed rules, the boxer lost (former boxing champ Ray Mercer knocking out ex-UFC champ Tim Sylvia being the notable exception).
In 1921, retired wrestler Farmer Burns easily beat prominent middleweight Billy Papke. In 1963, judoka Gene LeBell beat boxer Milo Savage. In 1993, at the first-ever UFC event, Royce Gracie took down top-10-ranked Art Jimmerson – and Jimmerson, legitimately terrified about what the jiu jitsu black belt would do to him on the mat, tapped before Gracie could attempt an offensive move. In 2010, former boxing world champion James Toney entered UFC — and was taken down to the mat in 15 seconds before submitting three minutes later to Randy Couture.
In 1976, Antonio Inoki shredded the legs of Muhammad Ali in a mixed-rules bout that is now widely considered the birth of MMA in Japan. Though Greco-Roman throws, submissions and kicks above the waist were banned, Inoki, from his back for almost all of the 15 rounds, peppered Ali with legs kicks. The bout was declared a draw, though under today’s MMA scoring system, Inoki would have easily won a decision.