White: Closing Mayweather-McGregor deal was smooth sailing

With yesterday’s official announcement that the Mayweather-McGregor fight is a go, UFC president Dana White tells ESPN that the process of finalizing the deal wasn’t as difficult as he originally anticipated. In fact, he says it was all pretty straightforward - as easy a deal as he’s ever been involved in.

"It's been one of the smoothest deals we've ever done,” White said.

"I thought it would be impossible to deal with Floyd Mayweather, Mayweather Promotions, [Mayweather adviser and principal negotiator] Al Haymon and Showtime."

But despite the fight being officially set, there are still some details that need to be ironed out — such as what they’ll price the PPV at, ticket prices, a broadcast team, and what kind of promotional tour they’ll go on, etc. All those details are expected to be sorted out within roughly the next week.

None of the parties involved in sealing the deal would reveal the specific financial terms of the fight — there’s a confidentiality clause in their agreement— but Mayweather has repeatedly said in the past that he wouldn’t fight again for anything less than a guaranteed $100M.

So in order to make sure that this event benefits all of the business partners, it’s now time to press the hard sell, with everyone getting in on the act of actively talking-up how big this fight could be both competitively and commercially. Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe even says that this fight has even more mainstream appeal than Mayweather-Pacquiao! Wowzers...

Meanwhile, Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza doubles down on that sentiment.

"We're not only drawing fans from the universe of boxing fans or the universe of MMA fans, but this fight taps into the audience who doesn't follow either sport," he said. "It's such a spectacle. People not interested in either of these guys are interested in this fight. That was untapped for Mayweather-Pacquiao."

So from now until August 26 expect to hear a lot of talk about the “unknown factor” of a mixed martial artist taking on a professional boxer — albeit not just any professional boxer, the best professional boxer of the last 20 years, in his own comfort zone — as being the mark of real intrigue for this event.