Conor McGregor will step into a professional boxing ring for the first time to fight one of the all-time greats in Floyd Mayweather Jr on Saturday and the general consensus on the outcome is pretty overwhelming.
You will be hard pushed to find an expert predicting anything other than a comfortable win for five-weight world champion Mayweather, who will take his record to 50-0 by silencing his rival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
But there are few people in the fight game with the confidence levels that McGregor exudes and the feisty Irishman – the only man to have held titles in two weight divisions at the same time in UFC – will care little for the opinions of pundits.
While the contest has drawn a lot of criticism, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellebe believes Mayweather has brought boxing back from the bottom by deciding to come out of retirement to face someone like McGregor in a major event - which is currently receiving worldwide attention.
According to Ellerbe, during the two years where the 40 year old Mayweather was happily retired - boxing lost a lot of steam.
"Floyd has single-handedly put boxing on his back. (He's) the reason boxing is being talked about, as much as it is," Ellerbe said. "Just imagine the two years Floyd's been gone, where was boxing then? With the exception of Canelo and the little fight he had, people weren't really talking about boxing. The minute you mention Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, then this thing opens back up."
Stephen Espinoza, the head of Showtime Sports (who are handling the pay-per-view), understands why there is a lot of controversy over the contest from many in the boxing world.
In one corner is the former pound-for-pound king of boxing, and in the other corner is arguably the biggest star in mixed martial arts.
"There are the boxing purists who aren't as enthusiastic about this fight, and I understand that," said Espinoza. "But I think that's more than compensated by the huge crush of mainstream interest in the event. The event as a whole remains compelling. It's something we've never seen before and no one can reliably predict how it is going to go."
