Mayweather-McGregor Press Tour Turns Ugly In Brooklyn
By: Sean Crose
Nice guy MMA journalist Ariel Helwani said it “felt hostile and uncomfortable.” ESPNs Dan Rafael called it “utterly crass and not very entertaining unless you like hearing Floyd and Conor spend a half hour cursing.” Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole tweeted that “someone needs to talk to these guys. This is AWFUL.” Jonathan Snowden of Bleacher Report claimed ”there’s a limit to the ‘acceptable’ awmount of misogyny you can present in a mixed audience. Based on my wife’s reaction, they exceeded it.”
Photo Credit: Rosie Cohe /SHOWTIME
And on and on and on. Let’s face it, Thursday’s Brooklyn press conference for the Mayweather-McGregor novelty fight made July 13th 2017 a Day That Will Live In Idiocy. For starters, both egomaniacs kept the fans waiting for about two hours. Then McGregor showed up dressed like Jesse Ventura, circa 1982. The Mayweather showed up wrapped in an Irish flag – which he proceeded to fliply toss to the floor.
Then Conor talked garbage. Then Floyd talked garbage. It was garbage in, garbage out. To this writer, Floyd seemed to find McGregor’s weak spot by continually bringing up the man’s record of “tapping out” in MMA fights on several occasions. Sure enough, Floyd’s attack was relentless. So much so, that it seemed to quiet McGregor – if only for a few moments.
In my humble opinion, however, Floyd was about as much a winner of Thursday’s press conference as McGregor is said to have been at Wednesdays. These guys are some crass dudes…and the routing is getting tired. Race has now been injected into the proceedings. As has misogyny. Delightful. One could ask a million questions, like why would McGregor direct thousands to publicly scorn successful executive Stephen Espinoza. Or why Mayweather would bring a young girl, presumable his daughter, onto the stage for these horror shows. Or why McGregor would actually address the poor kid in front of thousands. Or why…
Look, lots of people love this sort of thing, but even the hardcore fan boys and their media counterparts seem to have been put off by Thursday night’s spectacle. Professional fighting is a brutal line of work and the stress these two men are under must be grueling. McGregor, in particular, looked exhausted on the stage. How could he not have been? Neither of these men are heroes, yet they’re continually treated as such. Hence, things like Thursday’s horror show occur.
One more press conference, today in London, and the circus is over. At least for now.
