Floyd Mayweather exhibited for money – Newspaper Kommersant No. 175 (7376) of 09/22/2022

The most commercially successful boxer in the world, Floyd Mayweather, intends to repeat the experiment of five years ago and again meet in the ring with the famous mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Conor McGregor. Their previous fight turned out to be boring, but brought the organizers about $600 million and enriched both participants. True, it is unlikely that a new confrontation will cause the same resonance. Mayweather has been holding only “exhibition” fights for a long time, and McGregor has lost the status of a star of his kind.

The fact that Floyd Mayweather intends to meet with Conor McGregor in 2023, the American boxer said in an interview with the Daily Mail, describing his plans for the near future. In it, he has two more so-called exhibition, that is, unofficial and, in fact, more like sparring or shows open to the public, fights. The first will take place on September 25 in Japan against local fighter Mikuru Asakura, the second Mayweather plans to hold in November in Dubai. Mayweather did not specify whether his match with McGregor would be an “exhibition” or official.

This is a repeat of the experiment, arranged in 2017. Floyd Mayweather, an outstanding middleweight who had accumulated by that time a unique professional record of 49 victories in a row, enjoyed enormous popularity and had already earned a reputation as the most commercially successful athlete in the world, decided five years ago to fight in the ring with the also extremely popular Irishman Conor McGregor . McGregor agreed, despite the fact that he competed in mixed martial arts in a weight category roughly similar to the opponent’s category (in MMA it is light weight, up to 70 kg), and had no boxing experience gained at a serious level. The fight, which took place in Las Vegas, came out, strictly speaking, completely uninteresting. Mayweather dominated him and knocked down his opponent in the tenth round.

But the bet on the magic of the names of the participants was justified. The match generated revenue totaling about $600 million. About two-thirds of it is believed to have gone to pay the fees of Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. The American earned $280 million, the Irishman $130 million. There was only one more fight in the history of boxing, between the same Mayweather and the Filipino Manny Pacquiao in 2015.

True, it is unlikely that this time Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor can count on an equally generous reward. The fact is that in five years their status has changed a lot.

Mayweather, who is already 45 years old, after winning the Irishman, in fact, ended his career. In “real” fights, he did not fight, limiting himself to those very “exhibition” performances. McGregor is much younger, he is 34 years old. But he is already clearly going through a career decline. The unofficial title of the king of MMA Conor McGregor lost back in 2018, when Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov dealt with him rather cruelly. And then McGregor lost twice in a row to the American Dustin Poirier. Moreover, in the second battle – in July last year – he earned a broken leg.

However, if not record-breaking, then solid prize money for Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is still, apparently, provided. At least, according to the American, even for a fight with an unknown Asakura, he will get from $15 million to $20 million.

Alexey Dospekhov