Conor McGregor’s a master of self-promotion, you can’t blame him for drumming up hype and doing it well.
The UFC superstar turned himself into a heel in the eyes of the professional wrestling world and to a lesser extent, the boxing community just before his PPV smash-hit sequel against Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
Just after some of the WWE’s biggest superstars forming an orderly queue to spit venom in McGregor’s direction, UFC 202 reeled in the third most PPV buys in the promotion’s history.
That’s probably not a coincidence.
Conor McGregor's genius promotional tactic strikes again as the boxing world continues to talk about him https://t.co/GYTxoLvZQ3
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 2, 2016
While McGregor’s WWE jibes were the talk of the internet for a few days, they didn’t possess anywhere near the same momentum as those frustrating rumours of a supposed superfight in the works against arguably the greatest boxer of all time, Floyd Mayweather.
The reason why this irked so many fight fans is that it sparked endless debates over who would win the circus fight, when in reality it was very obvious. Inside the Octagon, McGregor destroys Mayweather. If it took place in a boxing ring, ‘Money’ would breeze his way to victory.
WATCH: Former heavyweights show us exactly how Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather would go down https://t.co/WZ6ADMUcOO
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 25, 2016
Unsurprisingly, the cross-sport, cross-promotion freakshow bout never happened and judging by Mayweather’s comments during a recent interview with FightHype, it’s never going to happen either, but everyone already knew that anyway.
“I tried to make the fight happen between me and Conor McGregor. We wasn’t able to make the fight happen, so we must move on.”
However, we’re not done with the MMA vs Boxing debate yet. Since the McGregor v Mayweather rumours have fizzled out, we’ve had boxers like Canelo Alvarez entertaining the idea of fighting the Notorious while Amir Khan has been actively trying to secure the fight.
Mayweather knows he’s helped create a monster here, and he’s pretty proud of it too.
“It’s so crazy that I’m talking about fighting Conor McGregor, now you’ve got so many other fighters that’s in boxing that wants to fight Conor McGregor, but I was the first, once again.”
“I feel honoured to be the biggest name in MMA and in boxing and I don’t even compete no more. That’s the great thing about my career.”
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