Save the date: Mayweather Promotions have booked the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for a ‘boxing event’ on August 26.
There is no indication yet whether the ‘boxing event’ in question will, in fact, be the ballyhooed crossover prizefight between boxer Floyd Mayweather and mixed martial artist Conor McGregor, but that hasn’t stopped people getting very, very excited.
So far we know this much. We know Mayweather and McGregor, if the fight happens, will only trade punches in Vegas. It is, after all, where the money is. For two men who have made it their second home, it makes absolute sense. We also know that one of the Mayweather months – September (the other is May) – is now off the table due to the small matter of a middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez taking place in Sin City on September 16.
That leaves August free. August is typically a dead month for boxing – nothing much happens, everybody goes away – but this unwritten rule may not apply to a crossover fight bigger than both boxing and mixed martial arts. Indeed, taking that into account, it would make absolute sense for Mayweather vs. McGregor to buck the trend and take place in August.
McGregor, the former UFC featherweight and current lightweight champion, has been dropping hints, too. He took to Instagram this week to cryptically post, “Something BIG is coming.”
Granted, though, this isn’t the first false start the fight has had. Nor is it in any way a heads-up for fans looking to take a week off work in August, invade the MGM Grand and remortgage their house to purchase obscenely priced tickets on the secondary market. No, the advice is to tread carefully with this one. We have been here before. We’re predisposed to being played and seduced by these two. What’s more, the MGM Grand, we’re told, has never been the intended venue for Mayweather vs. McGregor. That distinction goes to the bigger T-Mobile Arena, the home of Golovkin-Alvarez.
