That’s all for now. A bit of a strange weigh-in. Lots of noise for McGregor but lots more empty seats than anticipated and we’re still waiting to hear what happened with Gervonta Davis and Francisco Fonseca. We’ll update in this space once we find out. Thanks as always for following along with us and be sure to join us on Saturday for wall-to-wall live coverage of Mayweather-McGregor.
UPDATE: Gervonta Davis came in two pounds over the 130lb division limit for his IBF junior lightweight title defence against Costa Rica’s Francisco Fonseca, forfeiting the belt on the scale. Fonseca, who weighed 130lbs exactly, can win the title if he upsets Davis in a scheduled 12-rounder that will air immediately before Mayweather-McGregor. But if Davis wins, the title will remain vacant.
Updated
“Las Vegas is Ireland now,” says McGregor in an interview with Showtime commentator Jim Gray, which is broadcast throughout the arena. McGregor adds that he will rehydrate to 170lbs by tomorrow night. Robust cheers for the Irishman from the partisan crowd.
Then it turns to Mayweather, whose words ring familiar: “I’ve been here before. I know what it takes what it’s a fight of this magnitude.”
When Gray asks about why Mayweather came in more than four pounds below the division limit, Mayweather is to the point.
“Weight doesnt win fights, fighting wins fights,” he says. “It won’t go the distance, mark my words.”
Weights: McGregor 153, Mayweather 149.5
McGregor strips down to his skivvies. The official takes a bit of extra time for drama’s sake before it’s announced he’s weighed in at 153. So much for the rumors of the Irishman missing weight: he’s come in a full pound under the divison limit. Now Mayweather takes the scale. No drama here aside from the expletives he’s spitting to stage right. Mayweather weighs in at 149.5 pounds ... way under the 154lb limit.
#ConorMcGregor weighs in at 153 lbs. ⚖ #AboveTheNoise#MayweatherMcGregor
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) August 25, 2017
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📺@Showtime
💻https://t.co/XYtHFNVMSi pic.twitter.com/mX0AQ8UmyB
#FloydMayweather at a ready 149 1/2 lbs. ⚖#MayweatherMcGregor
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) August 25, 2017
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📺@Showtime
💻https://t.co/XYtHFNVMSi pic.twitter.com/syTIkWwG9c
Updated
Mayweather enters the arena second
Mayweather is announced and the cheers for McGregor turn to boos on a dime. Here’s the 40-year-old undefeated boxer, wearing a The Money Team tee and grey sweatpants, flanked by linebacker-sized security detail as Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight rings throughout the arena. A wide smile on his face. He looks relaxed, almost as if he’s done this 49 times before.
Right at home. #FloydMayweather #MayweatherMcGregor
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) August 25, 2017
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📺@Showtime
💻 https://t.co/XYtHFNVMSi pic.twitter.com/x9TrokY90j
Updated
McGregor enters the arena first
Here comes McGregor, draped in an Irish flag and walking slowly the back of the arena amid ecstatic cheers from a room that’s firmly in his corner. A clean version of Biggie’s Hypnotize plays on the PA.
🇮🇪 in the 🏡. #ConorMcGregor #AboveTheNoise#MayweatherMcGregor
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) August 25, 2017
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📺@Showtime
💻https://t.co/XYtHFNVMSi pic.twitter.com/3PW6XZtoKi
Updated
OK, then.
FUCK YOU #MayweatherVsMcGregor BOTH OF YOU ARE DISRESPECTING THE SPORT OF BOXING #CaneloGGG Sept 16th https://t.co/SX1Co1Uuj8
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) August 25, 2017
It’s not quite the event on the scale of the Mayweather-Pacquiao weigh-in ... but the fact that we’re even discussing a weigh-in in those terms is statement enough. Lots of empty seats on the far end of the arena, but there are easily 10,000 people here to watch two men strip down and step on a scale. With the get-in-the-door price for Saturday’s fight still hovering around $1,300, this is the closest a lot of folks will get to the principals.
Meanwhile, the Corona girls have taken their positions on the stage. Not much longer now.
Updated
A 23-minute wait until the next weigh-in and the fans are now being treated to a series of Mayweather-McGregor infomercials on a loop. Talk about preaching to the choir. Oh and now Despacito is playing at an ear-splitting pitch. Song of the summer! Zab Judah just walked by. Now a gaggle of McGregor fans to my right have broken out into song and immediately 10 members of the media stand up and start filming on their camera phones. So that footage should be on Twitter shortly. Incidentally, there’s no class in journalism school for liveblogging a weigh-in when nothing is happening. But bear with us: Mayweather and McGregor should be making their entrances in 10 minutes’ time. And we’ll have live video in the space above these words.
Oh look! It’s Tony and Margaret McGregor!
A bit of a surprise (we think) as Lennon says the next fighters that will come to the scales are the main event fighters: Mayweather and McGregor. That’s curious because it’s 5:37pm local time and the global feeds aren’t due to start until 6pm. So why aren’t Gervonta Davis and Francisco Fonseca, the other two fighters on the PPV portion of the card, weighing in between now and then? We’ll try to find out.
But as things stand, it will be Mayweather and McGregor next and the mostly pro-Conor crowd could not be happier.
Now Badou Jack makes his way to the stage followed by the Welshman Nathan Cleverley. They’ll meet tomorrow for Cleverly’s WBA regular light heavyweight title in the second televised bout. For my money it’s the best fight on the card.
Jack is first on the scale and comes in just under the 175lb limit at 174.5. Now It’s the two-time champion Cleverly, stripped down to his drawers, who tips the scales at 174.25.
Updated
Jimmy Lennon has taken the stage and he is announcing the first of the televised undercard bouts. That’s a 10-round cruiserweight fight between rising prospect Andrew Tabiti (15-0, 13 KOs) and Philadelphia’s Steve Cunningham (29-8-1, 13 KOs), a two-time titleholder in the division who once floored Tyson Fury but who’s past his best.
Both come in comfortably under the 200lb divison limit: Cunningham at 198, Tabiti at 197.5.
Hello and welcome to T-Mobile Arena for the official weigh-in for Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor card. The T-Mobile Arena is about half full with the fighters due on the scales in 45 minutes. Tickets were distributed for free – unlike the $10 charged for the Mayweather-Pacquiao weigh-in – but scalpers outside the arena were hawking them for $50 only an hour ago.
So far we’ve had a pair of musical performancex: first from Cardi B, the Bodak Moves songstress last spotted on a Nicki Minaj diss track (or not) and recently engaged to Offset from the Migos; then from Compton rapper YG, which reminds me that I really need to check if his brilliant 2014 short film Blame It On the Streets is still on Netflix.
But enough hip-hop scuttlebutt: today is all about the weights. More to come.
Updated
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a look at our roundtable of writers and fighters.
