Why A Conor McGregor Victory May Not Be Bad For Boxing

We are a little over a month away from the WWE matchup between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Conor McGregor. The fight will take place in a Boxing ring, with boxing rules and regulations, and it will be Conor McGregor's first fight as a professional Boxer. He will be taking on the best boxer in the world today in Floyd Mayweather Jr. I make the WWE remark because that is what many people have compared it to. A show, with a predetermined winner, but with entertainment value that cannot go without watching. People are having fun. McGregor fans, Floyd Mayweather haters, and MMA fans are having so much fun that they have made a 15-1 favorite in Mayweather into a less than 4-1 favorite in just under a month. They are betting on him for the "chance" of an upset.

On the other side of the spectrum though are boxing fans. Actual boxing fans that sit down and watch boxing every weekend they can. They have called this event a disgrace to boxing. A circus act. A way to once again make Floyd Mayweather rich without having any sort of respect for the sport of Boxing itself. The common conclusion among boxing fans is that if Conor McGregor does somehow pull out a miracle on August 26th in Las Vegas...Boxing is finished. There will be no reason for any new fans to like the sport forcing anyone interested in combat sports to now focus on MMA. I mean, how can Boxing justify itself by having the best fighter in the sport lose to an MMA fighter with no professional boxing experience inside of a Boxing ring? The sport is done, finished, completely embarrassed.

I have a different theory. If Conor McGregor wins, Boxing will be ok. For one, Boxing is already a niched sport that has dwindled down to hardcore fans only. These fans are going to continue to watch Boxing regardless. They are the Canelo fans, the Golovkin fans, the U.K fans, the Spence Jr fans, and many more that will not allow a circus act upset ruin their favorite sport to watch. Boxing in the U.K is as big as ever. With heavyweight sensation Anthony Joshua on the rise nothing is going to make them swear off the sport. And while casual fans in the U.S will write off Boxing, make fun of it, scorn it, and do everything they can do discredit it. Boxing will recover. It always does.

There is however, another side of the coin here. Conor McGregor winning...and it actually being good for Boxing. Yes, that is right. It can happen. Conor McGregor is about to make $100 million for facing Floyd Mayweather. That's ten times the amount of money that he has ever made in one fight in his career. He's not bound by the low wages the UFC gives fighters per fight, which for him has been around $1 million or a little more per fight. In Boxing, if you sell 1.5 million PPV buys in a fight you get around $35 million as a purse depending on the opponent. In UFC, you get your $1 million purse, a victory bonus, and the rest is money that comes from other places. For Conor, it's around $8 million. So for you math guys out there that is a $27 million difference, that's $27 million more minimum, Conor can make by staying in Boxing. If it's another huge fight like the Canelo-Golovkin winner...he could get another $100 million.

The point here is simple. If McGregor pulls off the miracle he is going to do everything in his power to stay in Boxing by claiming his stake to another huge fight, another huge payday, and to have fun on center stage. And make no mistake about it. McGregor is not Floyd Mayweather when it comes to making fights. He will take a fight against the Canelo-Golovkin winner. He's not going to dodge, duck, or wait years. McGregor don't give a f*ck.

McGregor is a show. He can make Boxing fun again for as long as he lasts. The press-conferences, the behind the scenes shows, the pre-fight hype, nobody does it better. He loves the spotlight. While he has had his share of big fights in the UFC, to this day, nothing compares to a major Boxing event. He is getting it full blast right now. McGregor is loving every minute of it. Should an upset happen he'd be in line to face the Canelo-Golovkin winner. That'd be another big spectacle that every news outlet would be covering. America would love it. He would love it. Boxing would be a headline everywhere. With it, other fights may start to generate interest from people who do not watch Boxing.

I'm not saying any of this is guaranteed to happen should McGregor pull it off, but it could. I'd put my money on it. Floyd Mayweather winning would just put Boxing right back where it was. He'll retire for another two years until he owes the IRS money for this fight. He'll come back, against the easiest opponent he can find that will give him the most money, maybe even another UFC guy, and he will continue to hold casual Boxing fans hostage in the hopes that he finally loses a fight that they buy. Floyd Mayweather has been a bad mark on the sport for years. Yes, he has drawn the most eyes to the sport, but it has been for all the wrong reasons. He's sucked the life out of casual fans but they still continue to pay to watch him fight in the glimmer of hope that he loses. I'm sick of it. I'd like a change.

As one of our Twitter followers said it's kind of like Trump winning the presidency. Everything is already messed up so let's just throw a bomb into the situation and see what happens. Boxing is already a niched sport with the upcoming generation showing zero interest in the sport. Maybe a McGregor victory is what Boxing needs to enjoy some mainstream excitement again.