Earlier today, British tabloid newspaper The Sun dropped the bombshell story that Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor are close to finalizing a deal that would see the UFC featherweight champion face the self-titled “best ever” in a lucrative summer boxing tilt that would see Mayweather make over $140 million US, whereas McGregor would receive a comparatively paltry $10 million.
But wait! It turns out this doesn’t appear to be true, as Ariel Helwani notes.
Absolutely no truth to this McGregor-Mayweather story. I can’t believe people are actually falling for this nonsense. … (Cont’d)
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 6, 2016
A) McGregor has a UFC contract. He can’t just go fight Mayweather. And b) do you really think he would agree to those pay terms? C’mon now.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 6, 2016
Sure, Mayweather vs. McGregor doesn’t seem to be happening and probably will never happen, but “probably” implies that there’s a small chance that it COULD happen, to cite noted mathematician Lloyd Christmas.
One thing that is 100% real is the betting odds for a hypothetical Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing showdown. Bovada has posted Mayweather as the expected big favorite over McGregor, with Floyd at -2000 and McGregor at +900. Here’s what Bovada’s sportsbook manager had to say. (Via OddsShark)
“This fight is a longshot to happen, in my opinion, and McGregor is a bigger longshot if it does happen,” said Kevin Bradley. “Floyd has never really been hit his entire career against the baddest professional boxers in the world, so Conor will have to shock the world to even lay some leather on Mayweather.”
“Our -2000 line on this speculative fight reflects those facts.”
Let’s be serious for a moment and put that line into perspective, Mayweather was a -3500 favorite to beat +1300 underdog Andre Berto last September. Towards fight night, the Bovada odds were -3000/+1100. Going back even further to 2005, Mayweather was -2000 when he knocked out +1400 Henry Bruseles in Floyd’s 2nd career fight at 140 lbs. So Mayweather is genuinely (albeit through one oddsmaker) a smaller favorite over Conor McGregor, he of 0 pro boxing bouts in his entire career, than when he fought an actual established boxer in Andre Berto just a few months ago. Crazy, isn’t it?
Of course, The Sun’s report is apparently rooted in fiction, so we’re just in a fantasy land at this point. But if by some stunning chance this does become reality down the line, then perhaps the end of the world is near, which The Sun has also recently coincidentally reported.
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