August 26th will be a huge day in combat sports history, for better or worse. Now that the boxing match between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather is a reality, UFC president Dana White is in full promotional mode to make the fight one of the biggest sellers of all time. In fact, White seems to think it will break the all-time mark for PPV buys.
In an interview on Canadian outlet TSN, White called the bout “the biggest fight in the history of fights”, and expanded on why he thinks Conor has a shot in the bout:
“I don’t see Floyd Mayweather as this indestructible, undefeatable guy. Is he slick? Can he try to stay away from Conor? Can he move? Can he roll with the punches? Can he do all that? Absolutely. But in a 12 round fight, Conor McGregor will at least hit him a couple of times.”
…
“Floyd Mayweather’s going to fight at 154 pounds against a monster. Conor McGregor is huge. I don’t think people are really going to realize, you know, all this talk about, all the guys saying ‘Floyd’s going to destroy him, Floyd’s going to destroy him.’ Wait until they meet face to face for the first time and square off, and people see the difference in the size between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather.”
Then he was asked if he thinks the pay-per-view will do over or under 4.99 million buys, because that’s what the Las Vegas over/under betting line is at:
“I’ll take the over on that.”
The current PPV record for buys is 4.6 million, which was the number Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao did for their “Fight of the Century” in May 2015.
This is going to be an interesting two months leading up to August 26th.
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