Floyd Mayweather won Round 1 of the four-day, four-city, three-country world tour over Conor McGregor on Tuesday in Los Angeles. The boxing great went old-school and blasted the UFC lightweight champion from the moment he grabbed the microphone. It didn't help that McGregor had a faulty mic and couldn't respond to every barb tossed his way. The question coming into Wednesday's press conference was whether McGregor bounce back.
Not only did McGregor come back, he came out firing on all cylinders in Toronto.
As soon as Dana White introduced him, McGregor went all out. He immediately discussed the previous day's bad microphone, which prohibited him from blasting Mayweather. This led to McGregor getting the raucous crowd to chant an expletive at Mayweather.
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"Does this mic work?" McGregor screamed. "Well then [expletive] that mic! On the count of three, I want everyone in this arena to scream at the top of your lungs, 'F— the Mayweathers!"
Instead of keeping the focus on his Aug. 26 opponent, the only fighter to hold two UFC titles at the same time directed the focus to the head of Showtime Sports, Stephen Espinoza. McGregor blamed Espinoza for the microphone issue Tuesday even though Espinoza sent out a press release stating that his company didn't cut McGregor's microphone on purpose. The 28-year-old had a few choice words for him.
"While we're at it, [expletive] Showtime, too!," McGregor said. "You little weasel. Look at you, you little [expletive] weasel. "I can see it in your eyes. You're a [expletive] [expletive]. Cut my mic off? Cut the champ-champ's mic off? Hell no. You f—ing weasel and you [expletive] b—."
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McGregor was on a roll. He kept walking around the stage, getting in Mayweather's face, bragging how he's done more at his age than Mayweather did at that time.
"Twenty-eight years of age, I'm getting fight checks and promoter checks," McGregor said. "When Floyd was 28, he was on Oscar De La Hoya's undercard and that's just facts," McGregor said. "Shout out to all the stripper b— on his payroll. At least Rob Kardashian only had one. He has 50."
With the crowd in the palm of his hand, McGregor threw out the best line of the opening two days.
"Carrying a school bag on stage,"Mayweather said. "What are you doing with a school bag on stage? You can't even read!"
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Knowing McGregor brought out the big guns, Mayweather, who heard a loud "pay your taxes" chant when he went up to the podium, knew he had to play catchup and doled out his best line of the day to refute McGregor's previous comment.
"They said I'm the motherf— who can't read," Mayweather said. B—, I do numbers. I make money," Mayweather said. "You know my middle name, b—."
Sensing he lost the presser, Mayweather went into the crowd and grabbed an Irish flag. The look on McGregor's face was one of anger. Mayweather put the flag around him. McGregor went and grabbed the backpack, which revealed a brick of money. McGregor claimed it looked to be around $5,000.
Eventually, Mayweather gave the flag back to McGregor, but the latter would have none of it and threw it at Mayweather's face.
McGregor owned the stage. He wasn't accustomed to having to do a speech or the circus of a boxing press conference. He didn't want to be outdone by Mayweather two days in a row, and to show the world he belonged next to someone the stature of Mayweather, he cranked it up from a six to 12.
It was the best press conference I have ever witnessed. You had two fighters who may respect each other but who want to prove individually they are the best.
We are tied one round apiece heading into Thursday's presser at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Sit back, enjoy and don't blink.
Steven Muehlhausen is an MMA and boxing writer and contributor for Sporting News. You can listen to his podcast, "The Fight Junkies" here. You can email him at [email protected] and can find him on Twitter @SMuehlhausenMMA.
