By Keith Idec
The press tour for the heavily hyped Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor fight will kick off in London later this month.
According to a story posted on The Sun of London’s website Tuesday, Mayweather and McGregor will officially begin promoting their August 26 fight “in two weeks” at Wembley Stadium in London. The date was not specified in the story, but the event 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 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 fight was announced.
The tour to promote the Mayweather-McGregor pay-per-view fight is expected to make multiple stops, including press conferences in New York and Los Angeles. The 12-round, 154-pound bout between the best boxer of this generation and mixed martial arts’ most polarizing fighter was officially announced June 14.
It is expected to take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The venue hasn’t officially been announced, though, and tickets aren’t on sale yet.
The 40-year-old Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs), a five-division champion who hasn’t lost since the 1996 Summer Olympics, will end a nearly two-year retirement to participate in what is generally regarded as a mismatch. McGregor, who’ll turn 29 on July 14, is one of UFC’s best fighters (21-3, 18 KOs in MMA), but the powerful southpaw from Dublin, Ireland, has never participated in a professional boxing match.
Despite the dramatic differences in their resumes, Mayweather-McGregor has generated intense interest from boxing, MMA and general sports fans. It has, however, drawn criticism among many of those same fans because it isn’t considered a competitive boxing match.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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