Well, it seems there was something to Conor McGregor’s tweet after all. Yesterday, “The Notorious” put out a tweet that read as follows: “I’m fighting Manny Pacquiao next in the Middle East.” Plenty of websites, boxing, and MMA alike, picked up on the tweet, yet nobody had any idea if the MMA star was merely running his mouth, or that yes, he really is going to get it on with Pac-Man.
As fans know, McGregor – who engaged in a hugely hyped crossover fight with “TBE” himself, Floyd Mayweather, back in August of 2017; McGregor lasting into the tenth round – has been calling for a fight with Pacquiao for some time.
Now, if word from Manny’s office in the Philippines is to be believed, the contest will indeed take place sometime next year. And in a nice gesture, some of the fight revenue will go towards battling the coronavirus in Manny’s homeland.
“[both fighters are] getting ready for this one epic last boxing fight,” Jayke Joson, Pacquiao’s special assistant, said. “We don’t deny it.”
Apparently, negotiations between the two camps are “now starting to move on.”
Further details, such as what weight the fight will be fought at (one would assume welterweight), how many rounds the contest will be scheduled for, size of gloves, exact location, and TV coverage, are still to be worked out then announced. But in these early days, what does the average boxing fan think?
Will YOU pay to see this fight? Plenty of us was suckered in by the Mayweather-McGregor fight (guilty!), but has that ship sailed…….fool me once, and all that. Or, as The Who sang, “We don’t get fooled again!”
Has McGregor – who Mayweather is said to have “carried,” this in a fight the then 40-year-old Mayweather admitted he barely trained for – got any shot at all against even a 42-year-old Pacquiao? I think not, but what do you guys think?
Freddie Roach has already said that Manny will deal with McGregor in a similar fashion to the way he destroyed Ricky Hatton, in those two brutal rounds, way back in 2009. Maybe. Or maybe Manny the humanitarian will take it easy on McGregor and allow the Irishman to stick around for a few rounds, maybe longer than that.
Surely, though, at some point in the fight, Manny’s 40th career KO will come. But how many fans will be watching the fight when it happens? Pacquiao-McGregor will pull in big numbers, almost certainly, but how many of them will be hardcore boxing fans/purists? Haven’t we had enough of these freak show type, hybrid match-ups? Hasn’t this once oh, so special sport had more than enough?
