Just after 10pm Irish time last night mobile phones and online streams came alive with the first shots to be fired in what will be a relentless publicity onslaught for the meeting in the ring on August 26th of Floyd Mayweather Junior and Ireland’s own Conor McGregor.
The thing about trash talk press conferences is that they always appear much more entertaining in short form edited highlights than they do live but that is the new world of always on content and coming off the back of Wimbledon Today on the BBC there was rarely such a vivid counterpoint between what used to be the norm and what that is now.
Like them, love them, hate them, resent them, you simply cannot ignore the force of marketing that these two represent.
The main news to come out of yesterday was that the price to watch the fight in the US market will be a minimum of $89.95, add another $10 if you want it in full glorious HD. No price has been set yet for markets outside the US.
McGregor’s fights have always been shown here through eir Sport and the tie up with BT Sport. That is a UFC deal though and this is a boxing promotion under Showtime with whom Sky Sports have had a traditionally stronger relationship. Prices will likely be lower here as they were for the Mayweather Pacquaio fight last year. It may be that we will learn more about coverage and pricing when the promotional tour hits London on Friday night.
That will be the last stop, for now, of a four city tour, undertaken by private jet of course, that tonight heads for Toronto, then to new York and finishes in London on Friday.
What we will learn from the other events is unclear but this is about continual promotion and normal rules do not apply.
McGregor certainly looked the part last night in a bright pink tie and smart pin stripe suit. On closer inspection the pin stripe was actually made up of a stream of F*ck You phrases stitched into the thread. We are not sure if that would have come from the rack at a Louis Copeland store but who knows?
The event itself was tame by comparison to some of the UFC press conferences with McGregor not having access to a microphone, despite some effort on his part, during Mayweather’s time at the podium, instead being seen to shout plaintively with his normally sharp comebacks.
Mayweather played to the home town crowd wearing a stars and stripes styled hoodie bearing the initials TMT or The Money Team.
That’s what this is all about after all.
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Find out more about our next major event looking at the impact of Sport for Social Good in September 2017.
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