Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather fight to get multi-city media tour

In the buildup to Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo’s planned UFC 189 featherweight title fight (which was ultimately rescheduled for UFC 194), the UFC carted the two stars off on an international media tour, stopping in cities in Ireland, Brazil, the United States, and Canada. From the sounds of it, McGregor’s much discussed boxing match with undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. will received a similar treatment.

Speaking on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, Showtime Sports Executive Vice President Stephen Espinoza explained that he expects Mayweather and McGregor to do some traveling together in advance of their fight.

“I think it would be a big miss as purely a fan to not see the two of them interacting repeatedly,” he told host Ariel Helwani (h/t MMAMania). “Mayweather did it, I think we ended up at 10 cities in 11 days for the Canelo [Alvarez] fight. I don’t think it’s going to be something like that, but I do think this is the kind of thing where people are going to want to touch it and feel it and see these two interact. So I do think late June, early July there’ll be multiple cities. Not a huge tour, but more than a couple. And I think it’ll be something that’ll be really entertaining to watch.”

When we last saw McGregor in the Octagon, he authored an artful knockout of Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC lightweight title. Given that he still owned the UFC featherweight title at that time, this made him the first fighter in promotional history to hold titles in two weight classes concurrently. He is 21-3 as a pro mixed martial artist, and 0-0 as a pro boxer.

Mayweather, meanwhile, is a sparkling 49-0 as a pro boxer. After his last fight, a 2013 decision defeat of Andre Berto, the boxing legend elected to hang up the gloves. Yet this lucrative crossover fight with McGregor, which is supposed to see both men pocket more than $100 million, was apparently enough to pull him back to the ring.

What kind of verbal warfare do you think will occur between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor on this press tour?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/20/2017.