Full-Court Press: Mayweather Jr.-McGregor Promotion Train Picks Up Marketing Speed
By Barry Janoff
July 7, 2017: The Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor promotional freight train that is heading toward Las Vegas on Aug. 26 covered significant mileage Friday with the launch of the first official promo spot from Showtime and the unveiling of an ambitious press tour scheduled to cover four cities, three countries and two continents in four days.
With McGregor coming over from MMA and the UFC, the unconventional bout is set to make very conventional money, at least by Mayweather Jr.’s mathematics.
"Money" is looking at a $100 million payday not counting PPV and income from his own brand of goods via The Money Team. His take could go as high as $400 million.
McGregor could hit $75 million, plus PPV and other income potentially raising that to $125 million, according to industry analysts.
There also will be a bevy of marketing partners for the fight in T-Mobile Arena.
Sponsorship deals for the Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight in May 2015 topped $13 million, and this event is expected to easily surpass that figure, according to industry analysts.
McGregor currently has deals with Anheuser-Busch and Beats by Dre, but is expecting more to come based on the global high-profile nature of the fight.
The initial promo video does not overlook the fact that this will be among the biggest paydays in boxing history.
"This is not a normal fight," says Mayweather Jr. as we see a shot of him counting a wad of money. "It’s never personal for me. It’s always business."
Echoes McGregor as he sits a vault tossing around stacks of bills, "It’s big, big business."
The business will reach the next level via a series of press conferences intended to arouse the public and Madison Avenue even farther.
The schedule for the media events includes: Staples Center, Los Angeles (July 11), Toronto’s Budweiser Stage (July 12), Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY (July 13) and The SSE Arena, Wembley. London (July 14).
The public is being offered tickets for each event (while supplies last).
Editor's Note: According to the fight's promoters, "Due to the overwhelming response from fight fans in Los Angeles and New York City, who grabbed nearly 30,000 tickets within hours of their availability, the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor World Tour event in Toronto on Wednesday, July 12, has been moved to the 16,000-seat Budweiser Stage (from Sony Centre for the Performing Arts).
• Public tickets to the Los Angeles and Brooklyn events are no longer available.
• Toronto tickets available Monday July 10 (while they last). Details here.
• London fan entry event information was not yet released.
What will the banter be like at each event? Likely a more bombastic version of the promo spot.
"I’m going to stay at the top," says Mayweather Jr. in the video. "Do what I want to. Cause when you speak boxing, you speak Mayweather."
Offers McGregor: "I’m going to be ruthless in there. My fist is just gonna break his whole face, and that’s it."
McGregor: "I’m always looking to make history. Every single day. Here we are again — more history."
Mayweather Jr.: "No fighter in history has done what Floyd Mayweather has done."
McGregor: "When I hit a person, they don’t stay."
Mayweather Jr.: "It’s not about who hits the hardest. It’s about who has the will to win more."
McGregor: "It’s over before it even begins."
(See the full spot here.)
"We’re not only drawing fans from the universe of boxing and the universe of MMA, we’ve actually tapped into the audience that really doesn’t follow either sport," Dana White, UFC president, said during a media conference in June to officially unveil the fight.
"This is such an unprecedented event, such a spectacle, that all of a sudden people who have never really been interested in MMA or boxing are interested in this event due to the nature of the competition and the nature of these two personalities. That’s an untapped part of the market that not even Mayweather-Pacquiao touched," said White.
Dana White: Mayweather-McGregor Will KO Mayweather-Pacquiao
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