Floyd Mayweather Changes Tune On Growing Conor McGregor Racism
Yesterday’s third world tour stop in New York for August 26’s over-the-top Mayweather vs. McGregor was a disappointing letdown from Wednesday’s buzzing Toronto presser, and it’s safe to say Conor McGregor did himself little favors in Brooklyn after coming out looking like a megastar North of the Border.
Much of that stemmed from his response to allegations of racism earlier in the week when he called Mayweather ‘boy’ and told him to ‘dance for him,’ but the UFC front man took things to an all-new – and many believe disgusting – level yesterday in responding to the accusations.
Instead of quiet the storm, McGregor simply got vulgar with repeated sex references:
“Let’s address the race,” McGregor said. “A lot of media seem to be saying I’m against black people. That’s absolutely f*cking ridiculous! Do they not know I’m half black? Yeah, I’m half black from the belly-button down! And just to show that’s squashed, here’s a little present for my beautiful, black, female fans (humps air slowly).”
Perhaps it was in the name of gamesmanship and promotion, two things McGregor obviously ranks towards the top of the world at, namely when he’s attempting to hype up what will most likely be his biggest fight of all-time. But the words were a microcosm of the entire New York press conference, a deflating show of pompous machismo that was doomed before it began after “The Notorious” left fans waiting for nearly two hours.
He downplayed the comments during his post-press conference media scrum as well, insisting he had no prejudice against his opponent or anyone else solely based on race:
“That doesn’t sit well with me,” said McGregor. “I’m very multi-cultural and a very multi-cultured individual, and I don’t have any ill feelings toward any – I don’t even see color. I just wanted to say something and have a little bit of fun with it.
“I just wanted to play with it and address it in my own little way. It’s stupid, and it’s ridiculous is basically what I was getting at.”
Regardless of his intentions, his comments are beginning to cross the line, so much so that Mayweather began to change his tune from earlier in the week when he just planned to shrug McGregor’s supposed racism off. Now, the legendary boxer believes the Irishman’s words are becoming offensive to the female members of his family, and it’s losing him a lot of fans in his own post-presser segment via MMA Junkie:
“This is an event where two fighters are competing against one another, but saying a lot of racist things like today toward black women,” Mayweather said. “I have two black daughters, a black mother, of course I’m a black man.
“He’s crossing the line, but I can’t really focus on that right now. I’m here to do a job, and my job is to go out there and entertain. But he’s losing a lot of fans by doing that.”
Mayweather continued on about the discrimination courtesy of MMA Fighting, adding that he also said some things he should not have when he was a younger man like McGregor, believing that the UFC champion will regret the things he did when he gets older:
“Disrespecting my daughter, disrespecting the mother of my daughter, disrespecting black women, calling black people monkeys is totally disrespectful. I have a diverse team. A diverse staff. And when I was young, I may have said some things I shouldn’t have said because I was young. But you live, you learn and you don’t say those things when you get to a certain age because it’s all about growth and maturity.
“Today, he came out today and did it again…I guess when he gets older he’ll look back and say I probably shouldn’t have said that,” Mayweather said.
