I’m not a boxing fan. Haven’t been since Mohamed Ali hung up his gloves. The sport just doesn’t do it for me. Don’t mind doing it, but watching is a bit dull, gets technical, I fall asleep. Which, if you’ve paid your tenner to PPV to watch it, is a bit of a waste. If you want to watch fighting go see West Ham play at their new stadium.

But on Saturday there’s a welterweight contest that is exciting. Really exciting. Because its different. Because its interesting. And because its probably the most cynical fight ever billed, in a sport so overflowing with money and cynicism that it takes quite a bit just to make the top 10.

Floyd Mayweather is 40 years old and ‘retired’, undefeated after 49 matches. We’ll call that the ‘grey corner’. He is, many say, the best welterweight ever. Brought out of his retirement by… well, by money. And there is quite literally no-one in the world who people would pay to see him fight. No worthy opponents. And if the fight is to be no good, people won’t pay to watch it (the pay-per-view in America costs about $100 due to… errr… being able to get away with it) like the 4.8 million who paid last time Floyd boxed. So they went outside of boxing to find his opponent. And found an Irish plumber called Conor McGregor. Who happens to be the world champion at Mixed Martial Arts. He is awesome and a massively popular crowd puller on… wherever you watch MMA. But, inevitably, there’s big money involved. Yet not quite as big as in boxing.

Mixed Martial Arts is like boxing without the rules. Well, one rule: no biting. Anything else is pretty much fair game. I don’t think they allow guns in the ring but may consider it. You can kick, throw, strangle, wrestle, grapple, punch and spit. Maybe not. Only blood. Its brutal and, oddly, fairly violent. And Conor is ‘da man’ in MMA. A killer.

So in some ways its logical; he knows how to fight. Just not as Floyd fights. Personally I think they should have 2 fights, one boxing, the other with MMA rules. But that wouldn’t be fair. Though I’m not sure why. And so Conor can’t kick, can’t grab, can’t break legs, just box. Which is why they’re calling it a mis-match. Which it is. Its like taking a formula one car and racing it in first gear only.

My tai chi class is mixed martial arts. But perhaps more gentle than Conor is used to. He couldn’t take the pace.

So I’m, for once, rather engaged by this 700million dollar spectacle. Even though only Lila could have me out of bed at 4 o’clock in the morning, so they’re not getting my tenner.

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx