By Norm Frauenheim-
Other than to say it was hard to watch, it was hard to know what to make of the first three stops this week in the Floyd-Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor tour.
It was funny in Los Angeles. Kind of.
It was silly in Toronto. Sort of.
It was embarrassing in New York. Period.
It was impossible to think there can be any kind of an encore in London. More than a tour, the exhibition for their Aug. 26 event in Las Vegas has been a steep decline into a tired exchange of gestures and obscenities.
Not any role models here, not that any were expected. But I’m guessing it’s not something that Mayweather or McGregor would want their kids to ever see, much less emulate.
Both are going to make tons of money and then have to spend a lot of it just to make sure their kids don’t grow up to be like daddy.
All the profane posturing and over-the-top insults appear to be exactly the spectacle that some predicted would be more entertaining than the match itself. A classic boxer, the best of his generation, versus a mixed martial arts star in sanctioned boxing bout?
As an event, it is neither fish nor fowl, which means nobody will be surprised if the pay-per-view audience screams foul after paying the $99.95 price tag for high-def.
If anything, disappointment in the so-called fight seems to be baked into the expectation for fans more amped about a chance that McGregor might kick Mayweather in the face at the Vegas weigh-in.
After all, there’s just not a whole lot to say after Los Angeles, Toronto and New York. These fans want spectacle, not substance, and it’s spectacle they’re going to get. The guess from this corner is that the bout will be about as meaningful as Donald Trump’s “take down” of Vince McMahon at ringside of a WWE production in 2007.
Then again, that bit of lowbrow theater went from fake news to real news a couple of weeks ago when Trump re-tweeted a redone video of the staged moment with the CNN logo as McMahon’s head.
Serious journalists debated that one, right alongside health care. Seriously. Maybe, spectacle is today’s substance. I’ll leave that one up to people a lot smarter than an old boxing writer still not sure what to make of Mayweather-McGregor.
There are the betting odds, only 7-to-1 in favor of Mayweather. Really? The best in the business for about a decade against a novice boxer, and yet the odds give the novice a real chance?
Then, there are news reports this week about Mayweather’s tax liability. I’m not sure what to believe about the reported numbers or even if he in fact owes the IRS for back taxes. But I heard the crowds this week, chanting “Pay your taxes, pay your taxes.’’
The reports are troublesome on a couple of levels. If accurate, they might be symptomatic of a deeper financial problem. Consider this scenario: Instead of scoring a one–sided TKO of McGregor with a couple of precise counters midway through the event, let’s say that Mayweather wins a decision close enough to argue for a rematch.
That’s when those chants might get nasty. To wit: He needs the rematch to pay those taxes. The again, what’s a good spectacle without some suspicion?
