Last week, former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC superstar Conor McGregor traded harsh words during a media tour to promote their upcoming Showtime Pay-Per-View showdown.
The two athletes his four cities in three different countries, with stops in Los Angeles, New York City, Toronto and London.
The fight is scheduled to take place on August 26th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The tour drew worldwide headlines, and there was just was much negative publicity as there was positive.
Many felt both athletes crossed some lines with their trash talking antics - because of the foul language, jokes that bordered on racism and even a homophobic slur thrown in.
Mayweather, retired since September 2015, returns for his final career fight. And McGregor, comes in as a massive underdog as he takes part in his first professional boxing match.
Both fighters, who stand to earn over $100 million for the contest, claimed victory in the verbal war.
UFC President Dana White disagrees with the critics who felt there were lines being crossed by both athletes.
“I think they've both had their moments, they’ve both had their moments,” White said. “It’s funny when people say they’ve taken this thing [too far]. These guys are gonna try to knock each other unconscious in about a month and a half. The verbal warfare is a part of the fight, too. But this is a fight — not a croquette game. This part of the deal.”
“The reality is what’s going on here is just as much of the fight as the fight itself. The mental warfare game, these are two of the best ever to do. Floyd has yet to meet his match physically or verbally. What this is all about is trying to get in each other’s heads and that’s why you’ve seen this thing escalate to Los Angeles to where we are now.”
