Mayweather vs McGregor a Waste of Time?

We are 24 days out from what is being called one of the biggest fights in history, as well as the biggest sports attraction of 2017. The man who is 49-0 in a boxing ring, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, is set to go up against “The Notorious” Conor McGregor in a boxing ring on August 26th in Las Vegas.

Let me ask you one very simple question. Why on Earth do we actually care? Of course it has peaked the interest of the world’s boxing and MMA fans, as well as those who want to support their respective fighter. Heck, UFC figures themselves show that McGregor is an attraction by himself. According to MMAPayout, UFC’s top three bought Pay-Per-Views have McGregor involved in the main event. The next highest drawing fighters? Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey. As for boxing, Mayweather VS Pacquiao drew a casual 4.4 million buys. Both figures are just in the United States alone, so need I say more?

How about those who just do not care, or aren’t affiliated with the fight? Well, for the fighters, a massive payday is what they will get out of it. Mayweather doesn’t exactly need the money, although The Guardian is reporting that the man known as “Money” will be forced to pay off what he owes to the IRS from 2015 with the purse from this fight, while McGregor would never have to fight in the octagon again.

As for those with no affiliation with the fight, I’m sure they will get a good kick out of watching Mayweather and McGregor have a crack at each other, but look at what happened last time Mayweather had a fight of such a high profile. He ducked, ran, hugged, and put in occasional body blows. This was typical Mayweather in the later part of his career, but it ended in a disappointment. McGregor, if he does stick to his typical aggressive style we have come to know of, will do what Pacquiao did and become the aggressor of the fight.

Mayweather will likely stick to his defensive style, which leads to another cat and mouse style fight that no one is desiring to see. As for those who don’t care, they are probably sick of hearing about it already. Plenty of people both in the US, the UK, and around the world would have been quite content to never have seen this fight become a reality.

So is it a waste of time? Well it depends on your own perspective. If you didn’t know the fighters stats, the hype, or the drama that could ensue from this, the tape would read “40-year old boxer comes out of retirement to face brash MMA champion in Vegas boxing match”. Who would want to see that?

Now, obviously it doesn’t read that way because of who is fighting. It’s Mayweather and McGregor. Are you American or Irish? Do you prefer McGregor or Mayweather? Do you have an interest in the sports of Boxing and/or Mixed Martial Arts? If so, well this probably isn’t a waste of time or money. Fans will support the fighter that they want to win. Americans and Irish supporters will cheer on for one of the fighters, because it’s patriotic to do so. Heck, I did that when Jeff Horn beat Manny Pacquiao in Australia just a few months ago.

MMA supporters will probably go and support McGregor, as boxing fans will support Mayweather. Anyone who owns a business in Las Vegas right now are licking their lips. Bars, pubs, clubs, anyone who serves cold beer and hot food will be packed to a max capacity of fans not willing to fork out thousands of dollars for a ticket in the nosebleed section of the MGM Grand (the cheapest tickets this author could find were on StubHub for $1,949 + fees). If for some reason you’re working while the fight is on, I am sure there will be a ton of live streams online that you can catch it on.

However, I can’t say I’ll be watching it myself. I don’t see the point of staying up until who knows what time on the East Coast of the US to watch a cat and mouse fight with a retired boxer and a UFC champion with a degree in trash talking. There has been a lot of hype, but it’s not worth it.

The Telegraph Images

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