Floyd Mayweather Jr. Vs. Conor McGregor

Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor, billed as ''The Money Fight'' and ''The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History'', was a professional boxing match between undefeated eleven-time five-division boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and two-division mixed martial arts (MMA) world champion and, at the time, UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor. The fight took place at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, on August 26, 2017, at the light middleweight limit (154 lbs; 69.9 kg). It was scheduled for twelve rounds and recorded the second highest pay-per-view buy rate in history, behind Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.

Mayweather extended his professional boxing undefeated streak to 50 victories and 0 defeats (50–0), surpassing the 49–0 record of Hall of Famer Rocky Marciano, after defeating McGregor by technical knockout (TKO) in the 10th round. Mayweather's guaranteed disclosed paycheck was $100 million and McGregor's guaranteed disclosed paycheck was $30 million. However, the purse for the two fighters was expected to be substantially higher for each, with Mayweather reportedly earning $280 million from the fight and McGregor earning $130 million.

Background

During his successful UFC mixed martial arts career McGregor maintained an interest in boxing and entertained the idea of a "money fight" with Mayweather. UFC president Dana White dismissed the rumors of a fight with Mayweather on ''The Dan Patrick Show'', stating that Mayweather would have to contact him since McGregor was under contract with the UFC. White even went as far as stating, "Here's what I think the chances are f the fight happening About the same of me being the backup quarterback for Brady on Sunday," referring to Super Bowl LI. In January 2017, it was reported that the two parties had entered an "exploratory phase" in negotiating a potential match between Mayweather and McGregor. On ''The Herd with Colin Cowherd'', White openly offered to pay Mayweather $25 million to hold the proposed bout during a UFC event. He also predicted that pay-per-view viewership of the hypothetical bout could possibly rival Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.

On March 7, 2017, Mayweather called upon McGregor to "sign the paper" and "make it happen", arguing that "if Conor McGregor really wants this fight to happen, stop blowing smoke up everybody's ass." On March 10, 2017, Mayweather stated that only a fight with McGregor would make him come out of retirement. On March 16, 2017, Dana White backpedaled on his stance against a Mayweather–McGregor bout and said that he would not deprive McGregor of a massive payday. On May 18, 2017, McGregor reportedly agreed to all of Mayweather's updated terms and signed the contract. The official confirmation of the fight was made on June 14. An international press tour was held from July 11–14.

In July 2017, IBF junior lightweight champion Gervonta Davis was reported to be going to participate in a co-main event. Earlier in 2017 McGregor called Mayweather a Malteser with eyeballs. On July 19, additional undercard details were released. By that time, three names had been confirmed on the undercard, including British amateur boxer Savannah Marshall, who signed up earlier in the year with Mayweather Promotions, and Badou Jack, who stepped up to fight at light heavyweight. On July 26, 2017, it was announced that former welterweight titleholder Shawn Porter would be headlining the preliminary card, facing Thomas Dulorme. On August 17, Porter pulled out of the fight due to personal reasons, including a death in the family. He was replaced by Cuban boxer Yordenis Ugás. On July 29, it was reported that Gervonta Davis would defend his IBF junior lightweight title against former WBO champion Roman 'Rocky' Martinez. Martínez was dropped due to not having enough time to make the 130 pound 9 kglimit. Instead Davis has been rescheduled to fight unbeaten prospect Francisco Fonseca. On August 9, 2017, it was announced that Nathan Cleverly would defend his WBA light heavyweight title against Money Team fighter Badou Jack.

A mural was painted in McGregor's Dublin training facility, Straight Blast Gym, depicting McGregor hitting Mayweather with a left-handed punch.

Fight card

Fight details

Broadcasting

Domestic

In the United States, the fight was televised via Showtime pay-per-view, available through both traditional television providers and various digital services, including the Showtime PPV website and apps, and UFC.tv. Fathom Events organized public screenings at venues such as movie theaters. On July 10, 2017, it was announced that pricing for the PPV in the U.S. would mirror that of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, being set at US$89.95 (with an additional $10 charge for high definition).

The fight was called by Showtime's lead commentary team of Mauro Ranallo (play-by-play), Al Bernstein (color), and Paulie Malignaggi (color), along with ringside reporter Jim Gray. Showtime produced a four-part documentary series, ''All Access: Mayweather vs. McGregor'', focusing on the preparations for the fight. Fox Sports (the television rightsholder of the UFC) provided shoulder programming for the fight, including coverage of the press tour on ''UFC Tonight'', as well as a pre-show and preliminary card on Fox and Fox Deportes.

Due to the high demand, a large number of television providers, as well as UFC.tv, experienced technical issues with their carriage of the PPV, including errors, buffering and low video quality. The main event was delayed by an hour from its projected start time in order to address these problems. Following the fight, a class-action lawsuit was proposed in Oregon against Showtime Networks for unlawful trading practices and unjust enrichment, alleging that the network knowingly advertised a level of quality it was unable to deliver with the amount of bandwidth it allocated for the PPV stream. Showtime and the UFC stated that they were investigating their respective customer complaints, and would issue refunds on a case-by-case basis.

International

Sky Sports Box Office held broadcasting rights to the fight in McGregor's native Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Although it was initially believed that the price would match that of the U.S. PPV, the price was set at €24.95 (£19.95). The fight was called for Sky Sports by lead commentator, Adam Smith alongside Carl Froch and British MMA fighter and UFC analyst, Dan Hardy. British radio rights were held by the BBC
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