Floyd Mayweather Jr boxing news
… Even if it is against a completely unworthy opponent.
This Saturday Floyd Mayweather has a chance to break the unbeaten record of 49-0 set by heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano and while I certainly won’t fork over money to watch what I feel will not be a competitive fight I am rooting for the fighter Mayweather (not the person. Don’t know him or care to know him) to win and become the new benchmark at 50-0.
Ahead of one of the richest fights of all time, ‘Freddie’ Flintoff – William Hill’s new brand ambassador – was tricked into believing he was conducting a phone interview with ‘Conor McGregor’ for the William Hill Boxing Podcast with Robbie Savage. Unbeknown to Freddie, he was interviewing the impressionist, Al Foran.
Freddie was ‘punted’ by Robbie Savage after convincing the England legend that William Hill had secured a radio interview with the Irish fighter from the bookmakers’ Leeds studio. Foran impersonated McGregor at the fighters’ training camp, appearing disgruntled at the inconvenience of the early morning phone interview.
Fight week for the biggest event in combat sports history continued Wednesday as Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor squared off at the final press conference ahead of the SHOWTIME PPV matchup this Saturday, Aug. 26 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The fighters spoke to hundreds of media from all around the world as the anticipation continues to grow for this once-in-a-lifetime event that combines the worlds of boxing and MMA for one spectacular fight.
49-0 – arguably the most famous numbers in boxing history. They belong to the great Rocky Marciano, heavyweight king of the 1950s, and having retired with such a perfect, unblemished record, Rocky holds a special place in sports. But this Saturday night in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather Junior will go to 50-0 if he defeats Conor McGregor, and he will break Marciano’s record. Or will he?
James “Buster” Douglas KO10 Mike Tyson. Leon Spinks W15 Muhammad Ali. Cassius Clay WRTD7 Sonny Liston. James J. Braddock W15 Max Baer. Lloyd Honeyghan WRTD6 Don Curry. Antonio Tarver KO2 Roy Jones Junior.
Each of the above stunned the boxing world, some of these wholly unforeseen results shocking the whole world; sporting and otherwise. The question now is, where would a Conor McGregor win over Floyd Mayweather rank alongside these momentous boxing upsets?
Heavyweight great Lennox Lewis, who occasionally works as a guest commentator now that his own boxing career has ended, is not looking forward to this Saturday’s big, heavily hyped Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor crossover fight. In fact, in speaking with BBC Sport, Lewis referred to the fight as “a farce.”
Lewis said he will not be travelling to Las Vegas to watch the fight “unless they pay me to commentate on it.” Lewis, however, did say there is some mystery to the fight – “everybody wants to know what’s going to happen,” he said.
Kelly Swanson
Thank you operator. Thanks to everybody for joining in. From the World Tour to Fight Week, we are days away from a really, really big event. Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor.
I’m going to first introduce the participants on the call today. Of course we have the one and only Floyd Mayweather joined by Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, and Stephen Espinoza, Executive VP and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports. At this time I’ll turn it over to Leonard Ellerbe to begin the call.
Matt Radmanovich
Thank you everyone for joining. Today we’ll actually be breaking this conference call in two, with UFC President Dana White joining us in the second half of the call. But first, we have joining us a fighter many people call the greatest mixed martial artist in the world. Already a two division champion in the UFC, who has taken on the best in his sport, “The Notorious” Conor McGregor leaves the octagon behind now for him to step into the ring and again, make the impossible possible. Challenging an icon of boxing, the undefeated 49-0 Floyd “Money” Mayweather, this will be his toughest test yet.
Undefeated two-division world champion and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward will join ESPN’s coverage of two of the year’s biggest boxing events: the August 19th Top Rank Boxing on ESPN Terence “Bud” Crawford vs Julius Indongo and the August 26th pay-per-view Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor.
Much has been made of the Nevada State Athletic Commission allowing Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor to box whilst wearing smaller, eight-ounce gloves. A number of fight fans, along with some experts, are now giving the MMA star a better shot at pulling off what would absolutely go down in history as the biggest pro debut victory ever scored.
McGregor, 0-0-0 inside a boxing ring, to Mayweather’s majestic 49-0 numbers, is not quite the long-shot he once was in this fight – not in the opinion of his fans and not at the bookmakers. As per a piece on The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the odds at William Hill in Las Vegas changed quite significantly when news broke about the eight-ounce gloves being brought in to replace the standard 10-ounce.