August 26 is creeping up quickly.
On that night, the 40-year-old undefeated boxer, Floyd Mayweather will step back into the ring after a two-year hiatus to face the tough-talking loudmouth and UFC superstar, Conor McGregor.
Mayweather and McGregor have given sports fanatics enough quotable material to fill up two arenas.
They went on a four-city press tour last month to hype up their bout and spent most of the time verbally lambasting one another, much to the pleasure of fans in Los Angeles, Toronto, New York and London.
While Mayweather dropped curse words every chance he got, it was McGregor that got away with tons of questionable racially-fueled comments, particularly in Brooklyn when he said he couldn’t be racist because he was black from the waist down.
But not everyone was amused with McGregor’s antics.
When McGregor is cocky,arrogant & disrespectful it’s deemed fun & playful. When black athletes do the same it’s obnoxious & classless.FOH
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) 12. Juli 2017
The worst comment that McGregor made and pretty much got away without backlash was the Rocky 3 “dancing monkey” comment made backstage at “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
The original video on the Jimmy Kimmel YouTube page was taken down, but it remains on another channel–Shady 702.
In an interview on Tuesday with ESPN‘s Stephen A. Smith, Mayweather gave his thoughts about McGregor’s comments.
“I just didn’t like when he called us monkeys,” said Mayweather during the interview. “I think that was totally disrespect. He called us monkeys.”
While Mayweather previously spoke on against the notion that McGregor is racist, the Irishman’s comments obviously struck a chord.
“I didn’t like it. It didn’t push a button to make me jump out of my character and go crazy, but I didn’t like it. I just thought about all our different leaders. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. They went on the front line for me and my family and all my loved ones. Like I said before, this stuff still goes on. But I’m strong, I’m smart, patient. And come August 26, I’ll be the same person—smart, strong, patient. And the same way he called us monkeys, we’re gonna see if he say that August 26.”
Although Mayweather vs. McGregor tickets are still available, the fight is being talked about on all combat sports networks.
Not to mention that the betting information and odds via sport.netbet.co.uk show that there are plenty of ways to still get in on the action–even if you’ll be enjoying the fight from your living room.
Header photo by Esther Lin/Showtime
