A farce, a mismatch, a joke. Those are but three of the damning labels experts and pundits have used to describe Floyd Mayweather’s upcoming bout with Conor McGregor.
But punters don’t seem to be listening, with Saturday’s showdown under the lights of the Las Vegas strip set to ‘break all records’ of boxing betting in the UK.
Mayweather, an undefeated former five-weight world champion, will return to the ring for the first time in nearly two years to take on the UFC star.
‘Money’ is the heavy favourite for the bout, having gone unbeaten in 49 professional contests across 21 years. He is widely considered the greatest boxer of his generation, while McGregor will make his ring debut at the T-Mobile Arena.
In spite of the disparity in their ring records, however, Saturday’s fight is expected to be one the richest in boxing history. McGregor predicts that it will surpass the 4.6million pay-per-view buys garnered by Mayweather’s 2015 showdown with Manny Pacquiao. In the betting markets, too, the fight is set to ‘blow everything out of the water.’
‘It’s absolutely mind-blowing,’ Betfair’s Barry Orr tells Sportsmail. ‘It seems to have captured the betting public’s imagination like we have never seen before. Not just in terms of boxing events but sporting events,’ he added.
‘Industry wide, it’s one of the biggest sporting events that’s going to be bet on for a long, long time. I think it’s going to break all records.’
Until now, Mayweather-Pacquiao was the most bet-on fight in Betfair’s history. £8.9m was staked ahead of the Las Vegas showdown in 2015, between half and two-thirds of what they take for an average Premier League fixture.
Two years on, Mayweather-McGregor Betfair’s exchange market has already matched more than £20m. Between now and fight night, the fight is expected to garner up to £100m in bets on Betfair’s and ‘easily’ reach £200-300m across the UK’s high-street gambling industry.
Punters and pundits are hardly singing from the same hymn sheet, however, with pre-fight predictions and wagers following different tunes.
McGregor is the popular choice among gamblers, though the big-money bets tend to be placed on Mayweather.
When the fight was announced, McGregor was around 6/1 to win. Those odds have now shortened to around 4/1. Mayweather could be backed at 1/4 in June but has now drifted to a 1/6 bet with Betfair and 3/10 with bet365.
Bets For Mayweather/McGregor Bout Estimated At Above £300m
