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Takeaways From The Build To Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather

August 24, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Lambert
Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor Mayweather vs. McGregor Money Fight Mayweather vs. McGregor

The biggest fight in the history of two men punching each other in the face is upon us. The majority of us think the fight is a joke, but that won’t stop us from spending $100 on the pay-per-view. Now that the fight is almost here, what have we learned in the past two months since the fight was announced?

Dana White Helped Get It Done
I don’t know how involved Dana was in the negotiations. Given that Conor McGregor is a UFC contracted fighter, Dana had to be pretty involved on that side. It’s amazing that Dana has consistently failed to put together superfights in his own company, but somehow put together this fight between a MMA fighter and a boxer.

In hindsight, it was probably easier to put this fight together than we initially thought. Conor obviously wanted the fight because why wouldn’t he want to make more in one fight than he’s made in his entire career? And Floyd Mayweather wanted the fight because why wouldn’t he want the easiest payday of his career? Money had to be agreed upon, but Conor knew his worth and Floyd knew that he was worth triple whatever Conor got.

They didn’t have to argue over weight and Dana wasn’t out to protect or bury either fighter like is often the case when it comes to UFC superfights falling apart.

MMA Fans Will Be Insufferable If McGregor Wins
MMA fans are already pretty insufferable. I’m not talking about anyone who reads this. You guys are great. There’s an inferiority complex amongst MMA fans where they are always out to prove how great the sport is. Any slight criticism about the sport is met with angry tweets that don’t defend the sport, but put down the other sport.

This build up to this fight has brought out the worst in MMA fans. Either they’re 100 percent certain that McGregor will win or they’re burying Mayweather for not fighting MMA. They’re clinging on to any hope or 10-second clip and damning anyone who doesn’t do the same.

If Floyd wins, everything returns to normal. It doesn’t prove boxing is superior to MMA or anything like that. It just proves that a 49-0 boxer is better than a 0-0 boxer.

But if Conor wins, we’ll never hear the end of it. Boxing will be dead. MMA will be the only combat sport that matters. More MMA fighters will try to get into boxing even though that contradicts the “boxing is dead” theory. It won’t be treated as the biggest upset in sports history, which it very well might be, it’ll be treated as monumental moment in world history by MMA fans.

Both Guys Kinda Suck
I’ve talked to a handful of casual fans who know about the fight and have seen clips of the press tour and they all had the same reaction: Both guys are assholes. They’re all unsure as to why people would pay a lot of money to see them fight when neither of them are all that likable.

Mayweather has never been well-liked, but that’s what has helped him sell so many pay-per-views. McGregor is more likable in MMA circles because he has a rebel mentality that MMA fans flock to. Get McGregor away from MMA and you see just how off-putting he can be with his words and actions.

The Build Up Has Been a Misleading Circus of Disappointment

Let’s not even count the press tour, which got old fast and did neither guy any favors. Let’s just focus on All Access.

When the fight was announced, I wasn’t excited for the actual bout, but I was excited for the build-up. Both guys are charismatic walking sound bytes with a flare for the outrageous and dramatic. I figured that, if nothing else, they would deliver some memorable quotes or moments that would make up for the fact that the fight was a mismatch.

Instead, I’ve gotten nothing.

All Access has been the most boring 30-minutes of television I watch every week. And I watch a lot of WWE. Conor is training hard, Floyd isn’t training, and that’s been the extent of every single episode. They completely glossed over the Paulie Malignaggi stuff, which is a forced narrative by Dana and Conor, but at least has some substance to it.

Every episode makes me dislike this fight more and more because they’ve dropped the ball in ways I didn’t think were imaginable when the bout was announced.

At least there was the #McGregorChallenge. That was fun until MMA’s inferiority complex and inability to take a joke outside of the community reared it’s ugly head again.

What have you learned about this fight or the fighters in the past two months? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter @jeremylambert88