We really can’t be all that surprised, can we?
In a landscape where we wait for fights to be announced via Instagram or Twitter, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor will compete in a boxing match at 154 pounds on August 26, 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
The fight was announced late Wednesday afternoon and took the entertainment world head-on like Bo Jackson wearing a Auburn Tigers jersey. From Rolling Stone magazine to KROQ radio station in Southern California, you’d be hard pressed not to have heard about the announcement of this contest.
Even the 3:00 pm, PST/6:00 pm, EST SportsCenter went into full blown Mayweather-McGregor coverage and brought on ESPN’s own boxing analyst, Teddy Atlas.
It’s been years since I’ve seen the four letter network go at it with boxing coverage during a weekday. You can say the timing of this announcement was well thought out, too. No NBA Finals or NHL Stanley Cup coverage to go up against. The representatives for this event knew what they were doing.
And that’s just it. This is more about the spectacle than the fight itself. Call it a circus if you want. Glorified exhibition. It’s the MTV Music Awards of this generation when MTV doesn’t even show music videos anymore.
The best part of all of this will most likely be the press conferences. Not the fight itself.
Honestly, they should try to put those pressers on PPV. Why not? That’s what this so called fight is all about anyway. Money. Honestly, I can’t blame Conor McGregor at all. Just over four years ago he was picking up welfare checks. Now, he’s UFC’s most bankable star ever, and certainly the richest. Can’t hate the hustle.
Boxing has had a great first half of 2017. We’ve gotten the best Heavyweight title fight some say in over 20 years, with Anthony Joshua picking himself off the canvas to come back and beat Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 at Wembley Stadium. That exhilarating win inscribed Joshua as a bonafide superstar.
And what about Errol Spence Jr. looking in line as the next great American Welterweight champion?
The Light Heavyweight Division is uber-talented and deep with contenders. As we will see this weekend in the highly-anticipated rematch (although poorly promoted) with Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev going at it. This fight has Ring Magazine’s No. 1 and No. 2 fighters pound for pound in the world in a rematch. Think about that.
It’s happening for the first time since Pernell Whitaker took on Julio Cesar Chavez’s in what ended in a disputed draw at the Alamodome over 24 years ago.
You might hear talk of Mayweather-McGregor hurting boxing’s real super-fight of 2017 between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez that takes place at the same T-Mobile Arena a mere three weeks later on September 16. How that can transpire? Not sure. That’s actually a fight. It’s boxing. It’s what you want to see in this sport.
The best fight the best. A Middleweight kingpin finally getting his shot at cementing his legacy against one of the greatest Mexican fighters of this era.
You will have a choice to buy either fight, or both, if you wish. It’s your hard earned money you’re spending. To each their own.
It is what it is.
Header photo by Bleacher Report
Article photo by ESPN
