Mortal combat: Superfight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor

This will be a blockbuster. The Mayweather-Pacquiao contest recorded the most PPV buys (4.6mn) and highest ticket sales ($72mn), getting the two boxers $210mn and $142mn respectively. A showdown involving McGregor, however, could break the 5mn PPV barrier, as the white-hot UFC superstar will bring in a legion of crossover fans.

Mayweather wins the proposed boxing match. Barring a miracle, Mayweather— unbeaten in 49 professional bouts and 25-1 favourite— will dismantle McGregor, whose tryst with boxing gloves began and ended as a 15-year-old in Dublin.

What we don’t know

Anything. The venue, the weight class or if the fight even takes place. Both the fighters are proven salesmen in their own right and the social media beef and negotiations could easily be mere publicity stunts to generate hype.

THE TIMELINE

July, 2015: McGregor appears on ‘The Conan O’Brien show’ to promote his UFC 189 fight against Chad Mendes. When asked if he would ever take on Mayweather, Mcgregor says, “If you’re asking would I like to fight Floyd Mayweather — I mean, who would not like to dance around the ring for $180 million?”

May 2016: The Sun reports the two are on the verge of a million-dollar fight. UFC President Dana White dismisses it as a “tabloid story” before Mayweather admits he started the rumour and is ready to come out of retirement for the match. Both men exchange words (and badly-photoshopped posters) on Twitter.

December 2016: McGregor acquires a boxing license for the California but not Nevada, where he has pledged not to fight again after receiving a $150,000 fine following a bottle-throwing clash with UFC fighter Nate Diaz. This is important as Mayweather has only fought in Las Vegas since 2005.

January 2017: Mayweather offers McGregor $15mn for the fight. Dana White says McGregor will “kick (Mayweather’s) head to another planet” before putting out a counter-offer of $25mn each. Mayweather says he remembers “when Dana White used to carry my bags” and tweets “before you ask for $25m, be worth more than $25m.”

February 2017: Mayweather tells McGregor to “have your people get in touch with my people,” and the Irishman lands in Las Vegas. Legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach says Mayweather “told me he would fight him.”

THE PRECURSOR

The world has witnessed such freakshows before, most notably in 1976 when legendary boxer Muhammad Ali took on Japanese professional wrestler Antonio Inoki. Jury’s still out on whether the fight was predetermined or not, though everybody agrees that the 15-round draw was a drab. The modified rules forced Ali to try and punch a sprawled, crab-like Inoki, who kicked the boxer’s legs around 100 times. It was Ali’s least memorable fight, but the clash of styles attracted tremendous attraction and laid the foundation for  modern mixed martial arts. A Mayweather-McGregor boxing match will invert that trend to show how an ultimate fighter fares when transported from the octagon to the squared circle.