By Keith Idec
Promoters announced Thursday night that the press tour for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor fight will begin Tuesday afternoon at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The press conference Tuesday is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. PT. Tickets to the event are free, but are required for admission.
Those tickets will become available Friday at noon PT by clicking this link: https://www.axs.com/events/338885/mayweather-vs-mcgregor-world-tour-tickets?skin=STAPLES
The press tour for the Mayweather-McGregor fight, scheduled for August 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, also is expected to make stops in New York and London.
Tuesday’s press conference will mark the first time boxing’s biggest star and the wildly popular McGregor will come face-to-face in public since their 12-round, 154-pound boxing match was officially announced last month.
According to a story posted on The Sun of London’s website Tuesday, the London leg of the Mayweather-McGregor press tour will take place at Wembley Stadium. The date was not specified in the story, but that event also will be open to the public at the same venue that drew roughly 90,000 fans for Anthony Joshua’s 11th-round technical knockout of Wladimir Klitschko in their heavyweight title fight April 29.
The 40-year-old Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs), commonly considered the best boxer of this generation, is heavily favored to defeat mixed martial arts’ most polarizing fighter when they square off next month in what’s mostly maligned as a mismatch. Las Vegas’ Mayweather is a five-division champion who hasn’t lost since the 1996 Summer Olympics, whereas McGregor, while one of mixed martial arts’ best fighters, has never participated in a professional boxing match.
Some still consider Mayweather’s age and his inactivity to be disadvantages against Ireland’s McGregor (21-3, 18 KOs in MMA), who’ll turn 29 on July 14. Mayweather hasn’t boxed since soundly defeating Andre Berto in their 12-round welterweight title fight in September 2015 in Las Vegas.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.