We’re still more than six weeks away from the highly-anticipated Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather fight, but the enmity beween the future opponents has already reached a level of absurdity seldom seen outside of Rocky movies or the the spandex-clad world of professional wrestling.
Currently, the fighters are engaged in a “world tour” of press conferences that more closely resemble some odd combination of roast battle and political rally than actual sports media events.
While Floyd has slipped in a verbal jab here and there, it’s mostly been the Conor Show from start to finish.
Like Don Rickles on some heady mix of cocaine and steroids, McGregor has prowled the stage shouting insults at Mayweather to an increasingly riled-up crowd.
In Los Angeles, McGregor mocked Mayweather’s size, strength, and financial woes.
Quite controversially, instructed the boxer to “dance for me, boy,” a remark that many have interpreted as deplorably racist.
In Toronto, McGregor likened Floyd’s love of strippers to Rob Kardashian’s relationship with Blac Chyna, remarking:
“He has 50 stripper bitches on his payroll,” McGregor riffed, egged on by a cheering crowd.
“Even Rob Kardashian only had one.”
Like we said, the whole thing has been quite the spectacle, and fans have been loving every minute of it.
Or at least they were – until last night.
At the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn on Thrusday night, McGregor and Mayweather rose the bonkers bar once again, but the consensus is that this time, they may have entered shark jump mode.
Things got off to a suitably insane start, when Mayweather took the stage draped in an Irish flag, and McGregor greeted the crowd shirtless, save for a full-length fur coat that he claimed was made from 100% polar bear.
(Because he’s “so cold,” of course.)
Things got even more ridiculous from there, thanks to moments like this:
Yes, that’s the Money Man making it rain with one dollar bills.
McGregor seemed unfazed, and the move didn’t excite fans the way Mayweather clearly thought it would.
McGregor responded by insisting that both Mayweather and his friend 50 Cent are both “broke b-tches,” who only pretend to be wealthy.
The evening got even more cringe-worthy when McGregor attempted to bring some levity to the allegations of racism against him:
“Let’s address the race. A lot of media seem to be saying I’m against black people,” Conor told the crowd.
“That’s absolutely f–king ridiculous. Do they not know I’m half black? Yeah! I’m half black from the belly button down.”
Needless to say, McGregor’s “I can’t be racist; I have a giant dong!” gag didn’t go over terribly well.
Backstage, even Conor acknowledged that he and Mayweather are running on fumes at this point.
“By the end of (today), I was kind of just zonked out,” McGregor told reporters.
“I was just chilling on the chair and flexing; hopefully somebody would get me in a nice shot with the coat. But it is getting to that stage like, ‘Let’s get the (expletive) thing wrapped up now, you know what I mean? … Whatever, it’s that time now.”
Thankfully, the May-Mac Tour comes to a close in London tonight.
Let’s hope it ends without anymore endangered animals – or anyone else, for that matter – being skinned alive.