The hype for the biggest fight of the century truly kicked off in showboating fashion last night as ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor and ‘The Money’ Mayweather met face to face in LA for their first of many press conferences.
The two biggest names in the fighting world took turns upstaging each other in a battle of words in front of a sold out Staples Centre, which seemed to favour the undisputed UFC Featherweight Champion. ‘Mystic Mac’ started by showing off his fancy attire, an expensive navy suit with the words FUCK YOU stitched into the three piece, before turning his attention to Mayweather’s outfit, “he’s in a fucking tracksuit, he can’t even afford a suit anymore! He’s fucked”. The Irish MMA record holder then went on to say he’ll “knock him out inside four rounds” and boasted about the fact that in order for the fight to take place it must be under a limited set of rules, which according to Conor, doesn’t make this a “true fight”. Conor states if it was a true fight, hinting at a battle in the octagon, it “wouldn’t even take one round” to beat the boxing legend.
Mayweather then took to the podium and gave his response to the cocky Irishman by getting the crowd to point to McGregor when asked to “point to the easy work”. He also responded to Conor’s previous “true fight” comment by saying “I don’t give a fuck if it’s a ring. I don’t give a fuck if it’s an Octagon. Put me in there and I’m going to kick ass”. Now I’m not being biased here, because I love Conor McGregor, but I completely agree with the “you do give a fuck if it’s an octagon” comment he made straight after Mayweather’s statement, as we know from previous Mayweather fights, the 2015 Pacqiao fight for example, that rules and regulations must meet Mayweather’s terms and conditions.
The smart mouthed MMA fighter had a witty response for most of Mayweather’s comments. He responded to “I’m going to knock this bitch out” with “you haven’t knocked anyone out for 20 years”, to which you can hear a majority of the crowd laughing at McGregor’s words.
It didn’t take long for the boxer to live up to his “The Money” nickname as he pulled a £100 million dollar cheque out of a snake skin backpack and called himself a “9 figure fighter”. He followed up by showcasing his name being ‘the A side’ of the line-up and said Conor had to come to the boxing ring for a chance at disrupting his perfect fighting record. Showboating and name calling aside, Mayweather quickly changed his tune by congratulating Conor, Dana White and the fighting world for bringing the two biggest names in combat sports together.
The pair then went face to face in a heated exchange of words, with Dana White famously standing between the two whilst the TMT team looked ready to brawl and the crowd loved it.
If last night’s face to face didn’t get you excited for the £500million mega-fight, then there’s plenty more in store as the two take their press conference to Toronto, New York and finally the UK at Wembley Arena.
