Boxing seems to be at it again, testing the waters and gauging fan interest in another special attraction super fight. This time, the participants are Canelo Alvarez and Conor McGregor. Combat sport site Roots of Combat posted a clip of a young Canelo in the ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr., with the word “masterclass” written above. McGregor retweeted the post while landing a jab at the champ simultaneously.
“One of the greatest performances in Professional Boxing this was. I landed more shots on Floyd than Canelo. I’d love another go.” – Conor McGregor
Of course, Alvarez, being the “fighting” champion he is, couldn’t let this slide. McGregor’s taunt worked perfectly in drawing out Canelo, who didn’t pass up the opportunity to get a conversation going with the former UFC champ.
“I just need one hand with you, and I don’t need to throw so many punches.” – Canelo Alvarez
Maybe they think they’re fooling the average fan, but this is nothing more than the start of a plan to get these fighters in the ring. Gauging fan interest and the powers that be are probably the social media reaction thus far. McGregor’s sneak shot at Canelo has nearly 10 million views on Twitter, over 1,000 comments, nearly 1,000 retweets, and over 23,000 likes.
That doesn’t necessarily mean this fight is guaranteed, but both guys have huge fan bases that will travel to watch their guys. It only makes sense that these camps could be working behind the scenes to make this happen. And yes, folks will buy this fight on pay-per-view. Between the two fan bases, they’d probably achieve one million buys easily for a mediocre battle at best.
McGregor vs. Mayweather generated over four million PPV buys domestically in 2017. While that fight was much closer to the height of McGregor’s popularity in UFC, a bout between him and Alvarez would be an international affair and would likely do large numbers regardless.
Don’t be surprised if you hear official reports of a fight in the works pitting McGregor against Canelo very soon. Boxing and MMA purists might not care much for the crossover matches, but they aren’t the ones paying for fights. Most fans will sign up to see two huge names like this nine times out of ten. That’s all promoters care about. Whether fans will pay money to either watch in person or on PPV. They may not total the same amount as McGregor’s fight against Floyd, but they could get close.