Lovers of sports spectacles can rejoice: The long-rumored super-fight between undefeated boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. and mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor has been made official. Yahoo Sports reports the two men will face each other in a boxing match on August 26 in Las Vegas. The 40-year-old Mayweather will end a 23-month retirement to face McGregor, the 28-year-old Irishman who went from being a rookie in the Ultimate Fighting Championship to the biggest star in the history of mixed martial arts in just a few years. According to ESPN, McGregor first suggested the idea of a cross-sport superfight with Mayweather on Conan O’Brien’s talk show back in 2015. It wasn’t until McGregor won the UFC lightweight belt last November, however, that the fantasy started to become a reality.
Mayweather is considered the heavy favorite going into the fight, though regardless of the outcome McGregor’s paycheck promises to be by far the biggest of his career. According to the New York Times, Mayweather’s 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao drew nearly 4.5 million viewers through pay-per-view. McGregor’s biggest pay-per-view draw to date drew 1.6 million. Forbes reports each fighter could take home more than $100 million for the fight. The two men will meet at the light-middleweight limit of 154 pounds, which bodes well for McGregor, who is currently the UFC's 155-pound champion. Mayweather, meanwhile, won one of the biggest fights of his life when he jumped up in weight to fight Oscar de la Hoya for the 154-pound belt in 2007. Mayweather walked into that fight 10 pounds lighter than his opponent. (More Floyd Mayweather stories.)
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