Mayweather vs McGregor London: Press tour wraps with more of the same

Four days, in all honesty, was probably two too many. Los Angeles got us rolling, and gave us the indication, indeed, that this is a special event. Maybe not a special fight, but a special event.

Toronto saw McGregor and Mayweather both arguably in peak form. Brooklyn got ugly and was even called a “shitshow” by Dana White. And today in London, we got a lot more of the same, but with some notable bits between the repetition.

Here’s a quick rundown:

• McGregor clearly scaled it back a little bit after bombing in New York. He was also comfortable in London, closer to his home country of Ireland, with a crowd that was delighted to see him, chanting and singing for him and against anyone on the other side of the podium.
• The highlight of the show was definitely McGregor rubbing Mayweather’s head. Floyd seemed like he didn’t want to laugh, but it came out anyway.
• Mayweather did not scale it back. If anything, he turned up the heat from Brooklyn, including calling McGregor a “f***ot,” which, well, the only surprise is probably that it took four days for him to go there.

All of this, of course, is a show. It is promotion, and it is, to be fair, promotion on another level. It’s going to do massive pay-per-view numbers, it’s going to do a huge gate in Las Vegas, it might well break records.

But now that the head-to-head talking is done until fight week, we’re left with the sobering reminder that the fight will be an attempt to see if the world’s best boxer can be defeated in boxing by someone who isn’t a professional boxer. Take out the names, and that’s all it is.

Thanks for joining us this week on this journey through the wild world of bombastic press conferences. It’s been ... something.