AP Photos/Julio Cortez (McGregor) and John Locher (Mayweather)
It’s finally happening. Boxing titan Floyd Mayweather will fight UFC star Conor McGregor in Las Vegas on August 26th. It pits two perennial all-stars—one from boxing, the other from UFC—together in the ring for a true 12-round boxing match with 10-ounce gloves. The announcement was made by Mayweather via his Instagram account.
Never in the fight world have we seen stars this big from the traditional world of boxing in unbeaten Mayweather with arguably the most marketable fighter in mixed martial arts in McGregor come together, so where the total audience will rank on television could be record-setting.1.5
The announcement by Mayweather shows that the match will be on Showtime pay-per-view and, according to Yahoo! Sports, an entirely boxing card put on by Mayweather Promotions. His unbeaten record of 49-0 puts him as the greatest boxer of his time, and the McGregor match-up could move him into the rarified air of 50-0.
For television, the match could eclipse the 2015 match between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao that set a record for PPV at 4.6 million purchases with revenue over $400 million. That record nearly doubled the Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya bout in May of 2007 that pulled approx. 2.48 million PPV buys.
For McGregor, he represents the biggest pay-per-view draw in UFC history. He holds PPV buy records at 1.65 million (UFC 202), 1.5 million (UFC 196), and 1.3 million (UFC 205).
Put the two together, and there is something much more than a novelty match akin to what we saw when an aging Muhammed Ali took on Japanese professional wrestler Antonio Inoki in 1976. It has the makings of the biggest pay-per-view audience for a boxing match. How much? It seems more than possible that it will far exceed the Mayweather-Pacquiao record. It seems within the realm of possibility to see the 5 million mark exceeded. It’s early (after all, the match date was just announced), but let’s try targeting the PPV buys at 5.3-5.5 million.
Maury Brown is the owner of Bizball, LLC, a research and analytics company, as well a member of the BBWAA. Follow him on Twitter @BizballMaury or on Facebook