However much we may condemn the tactics being used by Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor in the run up to their August fight, one thing is certain: this unequal fight will obliterate every financial record in the history of combat sports.
With weeks to go it has already been estimated that this punch-up may well gross £800 million, with more than 7 million pay-per-view buys around the world.
The Putrid Press Conference Displays
Spectators will be forgiven for thinking that they had heard every cringe-worthy, stomach-churning, pre-fight trash talk combinations possible in recent years, but McGregor and Mayweather are really lowering the barre in terms of vile behaviour at their press conferences so far.
We saw Muhammad Ali taunt Joe Frazier with a life-sized toy gorilla, we watched Mike Tyson bite a lump out of Lennox Lewis’ leg on a stage in New York, and tried to tear our eyes from the image of David Haye strutting about bearing posters depicting the severed heads of the Klitschko brothers.
But Mayweather and McGregor are something else! It seems that they stopped learning the alphabet around the letter F, and have managed to worm their way further down the gutter than anyone else in the history of boxing.
Four-Letter Words, Racism, Sexism and Homophobia
At the final destination of their tour of four cities, they kept up a steady stream of four-letter words, and hurled obscenities at each other that displayed rampant racism, sickening sexism, and horrifying homophobia. What was perhaps even more distressing, however, was the fact that the 10 000 spectators around them lapped up every word with glee. No one has criticised the foul language and bigotry being displayed as yet, and one begins to wonder if anyone ever will?
McGregor, the Brash Superstar of the MMA
Dublin-born McGregor has become somewhat of a folk hero these days, especially among groups of angry young men who are longing for more grit than fighters have been delivering until now, and this fighter has been a firm favourite with sports betting NZ punters for a while. While he is an excellent mixed martial artist, he is starting to become more well-known for being obnoxious, arrogant, aggressive and racist than he is for his skills in the ring. This is, somewhat depressingly, making him one of the most hyped-up newcomers in the world of boxing –even though it is a sport that he has never actually taken part in.
Mayweather Will be Defending His Unbeaten Record
These days Floyd Mayweather is becoming more famous for doing everything he can to protect his record of no defeats than actually challenging himself in a fight against boxers of his calibre. He has stayed well clear of fights with fighters that could actually get near him, and finally cashed in on a super-match with Manny Pacquiao once the latter was no longer up to scratch. This fight, until the one that is set to take place next month, is, incidentally, the most profitable pay-per-view event in history.
August 26th will reveal a lot: the calibre of these fighters, the amount of money sheer hype and big personality can allow organisers to accrue and the possibility of the biggest upset in the history of boxing!