In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, you will know Floyd Mayweather Jr and Conor McGregor clash this weekend in a mega fight that could rake in more than $800 million.
Apart from the pure financial considerations, there is a lot at stake at the T-Mobile Arena come Saturday. For starters there is Mayweather’s undefeated record of 49-0. The American has never been beaten in the ring since 1996 and has come out of a two-year retirement to face McGregor.
A lot of Mayweather’s reputation and brand is hung up on his perfect record. His status as one of the best ever to lace on a glove and step in the ring is tied to it. So his legacy is certainly on the line in Las Vegas.
McGregor has made his name in UFC but his reputation is also up for grabs this weekend. He has been beaten before, but his name has been built on trash- talking, grand boasts and even grander feats in the Octagon If he can’t back up his words and defeat the 40-year old tomorrow, then the Irishman’s carefully constructed bad boy image will take a hit.
But there is something much more important at stake on August 26 then money, reputations, legacies and bruised egos - the future of boxing.
Make no mistake about it, this bout is really about the future of the sport and the challenge to it that is the rise of UFC. It is a battle between the old and traditional sporting pursuit that is the sweet science, the one of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and Mike Tyson, against the up-and-coming, new-kid-on-the-block, fast-growing interest espoused by McGregor and Ronda Rousey that is the Ultimate Fighting Championship and mixed martial arts.
Ever since its launch in 1993, UFC has been nipping away at boxing’s heels. It started off as a niche code in the United States and now has spread around the world. How has it become so popular, so successful across the globe? Mainly because it is everything boxing is not.
Boxing has been around for more than a century, has mainstream acceptance and has a small but passionate following. But UFC was the outsider – new and exciting, fresh, along with being better marketed and promoted. It attracted young people and piggy-backed off reality TV and social media. It made stars of female athletes, not just male ones. Where boxing was old and staid, UFC was young and sexy.
Mismatches and boring bouts became common in boxing, with fans not getting to see the fights they really wanted to see. In contrast, UFC centrally controlled its events. The best UFC fighters were forced to fight the best UFC fighters regularly. There was no ducking or padding out of records. The best bouts were made, not like in boxing where it is now increasingly rare.
Aggressive promotion of the rawness and purity of UFC has helped it carve out a mass audience. This is the type of mass audience that used to belong to boxing, but that is no longer automatically the case.
Many fans have been turned off boxing by the corruption, the many worthless alphabet soup of world titles handed out and by dodgy decisions. UFC seems largely free of these because of its clever administration and organization.
UFC may never kill boxing off, but it has clearly made a big dent in its worldwide appeal. McGregor winning on Saturday would be another major feather in the cap for Dana White and co. It would boost mixed martial arts, give it more credibility and prestige, and at the same time be a kick in the guts for pugilism.
Plenty rests on Floyd Mayweather Jr’s shoulders when he enters the ring tomorrow.
