Six Reasons We Need To Stop Talking About McGregor vs. Mayweather

The “story” that has been dominating mixed martial arts news for the last few weeks is the farcical rumor that Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. are in negotiations to fight one another.

Like a nasty venereal disease, this will just not go away. People, I said this in June! This fight is not happening! Stop trying to make it happen! It’s not going to happen! OK? OK.

But some people just can’t help themselves. They continue to talk about this potential fight as if it is somehow based in reality and not merely a publicity stunt. From “experts” insisting they know something we don’t (FYI, they don’t), to journalists asking anyone connected to MMA their opinion on the subject, to news outlets forced to cover every minute development because of people’s morbid curiosity and/or gullibility, people continue to bring up this sham.

There are about a million of them, but here are six reasons why everyone needs to stop talking about McGregor vs. Mayweather.

1. McGregor Is Under Contract With The UFC

This is the primary reason a fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather cannot happen. The chances of the brass allowing McGregor to fight Mayweather outside the UFC while still under contract are nonexistent.

Bloody Elbow’s John S. Nash detailed a possible way in which McGregor could get around his contract to participate in a boxing match. Incidentally, McGregor went through with the first step, which was to get a boxing license in the state of California (New York also would have worked). But it is still a long shot at best. McGregor would need to file for declaratory relief under the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, claiming his contract with the UFC is coercive for not allowing him to box.

One of the many issues with pursuing such a strategy is that the Ali Act does not cover mixed martial arts. While it has been proposed for it to be amended to include MMA one day, it does not now. McGregor would have to hope the courts would rule in his favor on the issue. And that brings us to the crux of the matter.

Any legitimate attempt by the two combatants to make this fight happen would be immediately bogged down in suits and injunctions by the UFC to prevent or delay the fight until a ruling could be reached on McGregor’s contract. And while all the litigation is taking place, McGregor is not fighting and not making money.

Is the Mayweather fight worth possibly not getting paid for an extended period of time? Not to mention creating a possibly damaging rift with the company that will be writing his checks for years to come?

He could potentially earn a boatload of cash fighting “Money” and sail off into the sunset, but that’s if he’s able to keep it. The UFC could also sue him for damages lost from his not fighting in the Octagon, leaving him with much less than he bargained for.

Speaking of bargaining…

2. The Involved Parties Coming to Terms Is Far-Fetched at Best

If McGregor can’t reasonably get out of or around his UFC contract to fight Mayweather, could he work with them to make the fight happen? Not likely.

UFC President Dana White recently offered both McGregor and Mayweather $25 million plus pay-per-view (PPV) points to box under the UFC banner. Mayweather has since offered his rebuttal, and it’s about what you’d expect.

The UFC has never been into the idea of co-promotion. The Fertittas and Dana White have worked very hard to try to make “UFC” synonymous with “MMA,” and part of that means not acknowledging or working with promotional rivals. The promotion’s new owners, Hollywood giants WNE-IMG, wouldn’t seem like they’ll do the opposite of this plan anytime soon.

That principle is what kept them from being able to sign Fedor Emelianenko when they purchased and then dissolved their main promotional rival, Pride. Emelianenko’s management company at the time, M-1 Global, would not consent to “The Last Emperor” signing unless the UFC agreed to co-promote his fights with them, and they refused.

Perhaps it could be argued that Dana White and co. would be more open to the idea of co-promotion since “Money’s” Mayweather Promotions is not a rival MMA outfit. But after how long it took Mayweather and Pacquiao to come to terms, the idea of Mayweather, McGregor, and UFC actually agreeing on some kind of split seems ludicrous.

Even if the UFC wasn’t involved, McGregor and Mayweather have both proven to be two cutthroat businessmen, so just getting the two of them to agree seems far-fetched.

These are just a few of the hurdles to getting the fight made. If by some miracle (or catastrophe, depending on your point of view) a bout was actually booked, what then? What would we be looking forward to?

3. A McGregor-Mayweather Boxing Match Would Be A Complete Mismatch

We would be looking at a one-sided drubbing, that’s what. In whatever form the fight eventually came in, it would be utterly uncompetitive and frankly, embarrassing.

If the fight was a boxing match, as seems likely, to say McGregor would be woefully outclassed would be an understatement.

McGregor is not a professional boxer, and to say that he would have a chance against one of the pound-for-pound best boxers in the world is asinine. “The Notorious” one has delivered some impressive knockouts with his hands inside the cage, but his punches are set up, at least in part, by the threat of his other offensive tools. Unable to kick, knee, elbow, or take down Mayweather, McGregor’s offensive potency would be severely stunted.

Despite his suggestion that without all those other “spinning plates” to keep in the air he would be a great boxer, he would be in the ring with one of the fastest, best defensive boxers of all time. Saying that he would have a hard time reaching Mayweather doesn’t even begin to cover it.

On the flipside, having Mayweather compete in an MMA fight would be even uglier. At least McGregor could potentially make it to the final bell in a boxing match with Mayweather, but “Money” would certainly be stopped inside a round in the Octagon. It does not go well for someone making his MMA debut when he has never trained to defend all of those aforementioned weapons before. Look no further than James Toney’s foray into MMA for a prime example, and that was against Randy Couture, a fighter not nearly as dynamic offensively as McGregor.

Mayweather is never going to take part in a MMA fight. He’s undefeated and wants to stay that way. There’s no incentive for him to do it.

McGregor is extremely proud and can’t stand losing. The fact that a rematch with Nate Diaz was immediately scheduled after their first ill-fated encounter is all the evidence you need of that. Why would he agree to a fight where he is very likely to get trounced?

You don’t have to be an expert in psychology to see that these two actually want no part of fighting each other. So why do they keep talking about it? The next part of this article covers just that….

4. Talking About The Fight Is Exactly What They Want

Despite the fact that both men know this fight doesn’t make any sense and neither would agree to meet the other in his preferred arena (ring or cage), “Money” and “Notorious” won’t stop bandying the idea about. These are smart men. Why would they continue to talk it up as if it had any chance of happening?

Just a little bit of foresight reveals the reason: they are trying to keep their names and profiles in the public eye as much as possible.

McGregor wins if he gains any little bit of leverage with the UFC as a result of having an “alternative” fight to chase. Mayweather wins by keeping himself “relevant” and in the limelight until he can find an actual 50th opponent or announces his next business venture.

The only reason this is a “thing” in the first place is because the two men involved in this purely hypothetical scenario can’t stop talking about it. The more they talk about it, the more traction it gains. And the only reason they’re talking about it is so we talk about it.

Well, mission accomplished. These two shysters are getting the profile bump they’re looking for. Meanwhile, the fans and the media buying into this gambit look like suckers.

Looking for evidence that this is nothing more than pure buffoonery? You’re in luck.

5. Mayweather’s Fight Poster Was A Joke

.@badmedina https://t.co/648Qb26FTL pic.twitter.com/67agluPAGt

— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) May 30, 2016

This is the fight “poster” Mayweather tweeted out last year to keep the “Money”-McGregor hype train rolling.

Are you kidding me? This is supposed to be the event poster of an actual big-ticket prizefight? It looks like something slapped together in a freshman computer class.

I genuinely don’t know what to say to this pathetic, heavy-handed attempt at self promotion. It’s almost alarming how lazy it is. Does Mayweather not know “Conor’s” last name? Why is the background super dark and devoid of graphics? Why is each fighter hamfistedly labeled by his sport? Also, where did CBS come from?

There are so many questions that cry out for answers. Or there would be, if any of this actually mattered. But it doesn’t.

Look no further than this poster for proof of that.

6. McGregor Already Has Compelling, Big-Money Fights To Take

Why are so many people talking about a complete fantasy in the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight when McGregor already has myriad big-name opponents for fights that would make beaucoup bucks? (And I don’t mean “fantasy” in the sense that it would be a dream come true, I mean in the sense that it has no basis in fact or common sense.)

McGregor has not shortage of options for MMA fights when he returns to the cage. He could defend his belt against the interim lightweight champion (here’s hoping for that). He could go for a belt in a third weight class against the winner of the Tyron Woodley vs. “Wonderboy” Thompson rematch. He could take his own rematch against Jose Aldo or Max Holloway to reclaim the featherweight strap.

Any of those fights would be big money. Any fight that McGregor is in at this point is big money. And those are fights where extensive negotiations would likely be necessary, but the UFC could get the job done. Fans could reasonably expect the contracts to get signed for whatever fight they ultimately chose. That is simply not the case when McGregor, Mayweather, and the UFC are all in the picture.

Granted, a McGregor vs. Mayweather fight could likely gross more than any other fight in history in terms of PPVs and live gate. But splitting all that revenue three ways and satisfying all the involved parties is a pipe dream.

And that is good for us. Mystic Mac against another elite mixed martial artist is a fight with actual intrigue. More than just being a media circus, there would be an actual barnburner to take in after the epic trash talk concludes. And that’s why we watch isn’t it? Fight fans want to see great fights.

So enough with Mayweather-McGregor already. There are bigger and better things to talk about. Like what kind of

Like what kind of soundbites we could get from T-Ferg and Nurmy leading up to their UFC 209 bloodbath.