Promoter Kathy Duva said the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Conor McGregor fight is “bad for boxing” and the backlash from the exhibition spectacle will likely dog the sport for years to come.
“Of course it’s bad for boxing,” Duva said. “It’s going to suck up all the air in the room.”
Boxing legend Mayweather and mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar McGregor on Wednesday announced plans for a boxing showdown that could become one of the richest bouts in history. The fight is to take place on Aug. 26 in the US boxing capital of Las Vegas.
Photo: AP
“You’re all going to write about it. People will get all excited,” Duva said of the competition. “And the casual fans we always want to bring into the tent are going to be disappointed again.”
“It’s going to be years before they want to see another boxing event,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
Mayweather, who is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, is a heavy favorite against McGregor — who has not boxed competitively in the ring since he was a teenager.
“It’s not a boxing event, it’s a spectacle,” said Duva, promoter for Russian boxer Sergey Kovalev, who was yesterday to fight Andre Ward in a world title light heavyweight rematch.
“On the other hand, when this is over and this fight ends up the way I expect it will, the next time somebody asks me, ‘MMA or boxing, what’s the better sport?’ I’ll say: ‘We know who the bad asses are, because Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor just got their asses kicked by two boxers,’” Duva said. “We’ll have that to cling to.”
There are some who think that if McGregor starts losing he might resort to throwing elbows and kicks at Mayweather, but the promoters of the fight have said that will not happen.
“It is in the contract,” Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White said. “The fight is under the rules of boxing. There would be a lawsuit. If that ever happened, Conor would depart with a lot of money, and Conor likes money.”
White said plans are in the works to have the fighters go on a promotional tour of major US cities.
Since the fight was announced, Mayweather has mentioned it just once via social media — as he appears to be more concerned about showing off his extravagant lifestyle.
He has launched something he calls the “Mayweather Challenge,” because he is “tired of people on social media bragging they live a certain lifestyle when they don’t.”
Over the past few days, Mayweather has made a point of using his Twitter and Instagram accounts to show off his private jet.
That was followed by a video taken inside his Rolls-Royce Phantom, in which he boasts about his Patek Philippe gold watch while the camera pans down to show off his chinchilla fur floor mats.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB