Mayweather vs. McGregor: Everything you need to know about Saturday's megafight

Dave Deibert, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Published on: August 25, 2017 | Last Updated: August 25, 2017 1:18 PM CST, http://thestarphoenix.com/spor...-saturdays-megafight

After months of anticipation, the showdown between boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar Conor McGregor has arrived. Here’s everything you need to know heading into Saturday’s bout (T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, 9 p.m. ET), which is expected to be the biggest money-maker in combat sports history …

Who are the main eventers?

Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather: 49-0 (boxing); 40 years old; 5-foot-8 with 72-inch reach; native of Grand Rapids, Mich., who now resides in Las Vegas; five-division world boxing champion; considered perhaps the greatest defensive fighter in boxing history; 1996 Olympic bronze medalist; biggest attraction in modern combat sports history; attempting to surpass Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record.

Conor ‘The Notorious’ McGregor: 18-3 (MMA); 29 years old; 5-foot-9 with 74-inch reach; native of Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland; two-division UFC champion, including only fighter to simultaneously hold titles in multiple weight classes; thanks to his charisma and flamboyance outside the cage and knockout power inside, ranks alongside Ronda Rousey as UFC’s top drawing card of the decade.

What’s the big deal?

Two things: (1) It’s Ultimate Fighting Championship’s biggest active star against boxing’s top star; (2) Though it’s been addressed time and again, and the answer is usually the same, fans still want to see what happens when combat worlds collide. (More on that later.)

What’s the difference between MMA and boxing?

In boxing, the combatants strike with only their hands, and only above the waist. At the 154-pound super welterweight limit at which McGregor and Mayweather are fighting, combatants are usually required to wear 10-ounce boxing gloves, though in this case the Nevada Athletic Commission allowed the fighters to wear eight-ounce boxing gloves.

MMA combines boxing, kickboxing, jiu jitsu, wrestling and other forms of combat into one. Fighters are allowed to strike using fists, elbows, kicks and knees, and attack virtually all parts of the body (groin and back of the head, like boxing, being among the exceptions). The fighters wear four-ounce gloves with open fingers, allowing for grappling and submissions. As a result, fighters’ footwork, technique and positioning are drastically different in the two sports.

In boxing, knocked-down fighters are given standing eight counts to recover from knockdowns and no striking when an opponent is on the mat. In MMA, fighters are allowed to attack when a fighter is down, looking to either strike, wrestle or submit the opponent.

The knock on Mayweather — and the reason some people give McGregor a chance — is that he rarely knocks people out. (Ten of his last 12 fights have gone to a decision.) McGregor, meanwhile, is considered one of the heavy hitters in MMA — especially with his left hand.

“I believe one or two rounds, with eight-ounce gloves, I don’t see him surviving,” McGregor said.

“When he gets hit he’s going to find out it’s totally different,” Mayweather insisted.

How much will it cost to watch the fight?

For the pay-per-view in high definition, it’s $99.95. For standard definition, chop $10 off the bill. If you’re in Vegas, Ticketmaster still has seats ranging from roughly $1,400 to $17,000 at T-Mobile Arena, which seats around 18,000 for boxing.

What time will McGregor and Mayweather head to the ring?

The PPV broadcast starts at 9 p.m. ET., with three preliminary bouts. The two main eventers should be making their walks down the aisle around 11 p.m. ET.

Mayweather-McGregor is scheduled for 12, three-minute rounds. (McGregor’s UFC championship bouts last a maximum of five, five-minute rounds.)

How much money is there to go around?

The belief that only heavyweights such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis or Riddick Bowe could draw epic pay-per-view buyrates changed for good in 2007, when Mayweather versus Oscar De La Hoya drew 2.4 million PPV buys and generated $130 million in revenue — shattering the previous record of 1.99 million PPV buys for Holyfield-Tyson II. In 2015, Mayweather met Manny Pacquaio, an event that drew 4.6 million PPV buys and more than $400 million in revenue.

Saturday’s card is expected to surpass the $72-million live gate for Mayweather-Pacquaio. Globally, the broadcast is forecast to bring in upwards of $700 million in revenue.

Mayweather and McGregor are getting paid both as fighters and as co-promoters. Between their fight purse, PPV buys and ticket sales, all the way down to sponsorships, souvenirs and popcorn sales, Mayweather is forecast to pocket around $250 million while McGregor is in line to earn in the neighbourhood of $100 million.

At this week’s final pre-fight press conference, The Money Belt was unveiled. The winner will also receive the custom-made alligator-skin strap that features 3,360 diamonds, 600 sapphires, 300 emeralds and more than three kilograms of solid, 24-karat gold.

Advertisements for the bout between boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor are displayed on the side of T-Mobile Arena on August 24, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada Ethan Miller / Getty Images

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.

https://youtu.be/rNY6qjFKrF8

Ed (Strangler) Lewis, pro wrestling star and legitimate shooter, was in talks to face heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey in the 1920s, but Dempsey knew he’d have little chance in a mixed-rules bout while Lewis was aware his chances were equally slim in a boxing-rules match.

But the boxing ring is Mayweather’s territory.

To put it in a non-combat perspective, imagine if Chen Long, the reigning Olympic badminton champion and two-time world champ, challenged tennis icon Roger Federer — at Wimbledon. By all logic, Federer would beat Long 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 without breaking a sweat. At the same time, if Federer picked up a badminton racquet, Long would likely beat him 21-1, 21-2.

Mayweather is one of the finest defensive fighters in history. Not only has he never lost a professional bout, he’s only been officially knocked down once in his career (May 2001 versus Carlos Hernandez). He’s trained in boxing since he was in diapers. His hands are quicker than a hiccup. It’s a lot to overcome for McGregor, who while he has some previous boxing training, has only committed 100 per cent to the sport in recent months while preparing for Mayweather. 

“Fighting in Vegas, I just don’t see how Conor outpoints him,” UFC president Dana White said. “Conor is going to get in there to rough him up and try to knock him out.”

“This fight is not going to go the distance,” Mayweather said.

Always supremely confident, McGregor — who in five years went from being on social assistance in Ireland to cashing the biggest fighters’ cheques in UFC history — insists he’s going to pull off one of the biggest upsets in sports history.

“I believe I’ll knock him out early, one or two rounds,” he said. “No fighter can train for what I bring into the ring or into the octagon.”

— With Associated Press files

I will watch the Fight next week when it is FREE.

Interesting match between the two participants.