Soon, this two months mania will be over, questions answered, and will all be able to obsess over other minutiae within the fight game sphere.
For that, I think some of us will be thankful. Though, I will say, I’m not of the camp who thinks that Aug 26 can’t come quickly enough. As Showtime boxing boss Stephen Espinoza said, I wouldn’t want a year’s worth of hyping for Mayweather-McGregor. But two months worth, it has not placed me into a mindset of JUST GET THIS OVER WITH ALREADY.
There have been some twists and turns along the way which have delivered us from what drags us down living this day to day oft drudgerous slog. Floyd and Conor, especially Conor, have said and done some entertaining and surprising things these last 8 weeks, and we can thank them for that, for pockets of time where we can avoid thinking about the neo Nazi resurgence and climate change horrors. Entertainers shouldn’t be boring, being boring is their mortal sin, and by and large these titans of their respective disciplines have not been that.
Some of those twists and turns…What about the lack of expected response from the public in regards to purchasing tickets to watch this clash? If you build it, they will come, and pay prettily for the honor. Or… not so much. Maybe 15,000 people will be inside T-Mobile tomorrow, and the take from that gate will be ludicrously large. But the price points were too rich given the long term hangover experienced by those who’d been dosed with the brown acid at the previous mega fight, Maypac. What this proves is up for debate…maybe just that the people deciding how to price seats misjudged the attractiveness of the event. And the fact that yes, the Maypac hangover is a real deal thing.
Many of us are slightly eager to see the event get over with for no other reason than to see opinions, the endless hot takes and declarations delivered with Confucian certitude, no matter if the track record of the predictor is sub superb, dry up. Basically, many of us on the boxing side will be happy to have Mayweather remind or inform MMA/Conor fans about levels. And no, the Dubliner isn’t such a majestic athlete that he can shortcut his way and pull off what 47 others haven’t been able to do, defeat Floyd. Shortcuts sometimes work on city streets, but in endeavors such as this, Mayweather regularly reminds us, he’s been a professional ace for 21 years. He’s a sensation, he also reminds us, but not an overnight one.
Come 12:15 am Sunday morning, all those people who allowed McGregor’s zealotry in his powers convince them that he could maybe beat this modern pugilistic master of craft will be silent. Or, maybe they’ll be in humbled mode and allow that ok, Mayweather really is just that good. There will be no shortage of self loathing, of people kicking themselves at their inability to sift marketing from reality. As they watch round after round of Mayweather’s easy work ways against an out of his element UFCer, they will curse the side of themselves that allowed hope to insert itself into a space reserved for practical reasoning. That’s no massive shame–most of us do it every day as we negotiate the banality of existence.
My final warning: Remind yourself to set your expectation level to a reasonable setting. Floyd isn’t Mike Tyson, his default manner is cautionary. I hope like hell he follows his promise, to KO Conor, because he’s right, the fans deserve it. And then he can transition to the next phase of his life, McGregor can head back to his preferred domain, both can sleep on pillow cases filled with cash and we boxing people can go back to figuring out who will be the lead dog in the sport, sans Mayweather.
