Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor: What really happened as circus imploded in New York City

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK CITY — Following a lively pair of events in Los Angeles and Toronto, the Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor show landed in New York on Thursday (local time) but unfortunately the event fell flat from start to finish.

The beginning of the entire ordeal was one of the biggest problems considering the press conference was scheduled to start at 6:30pm local time but word quickly spread throughout the arena that neither Mayweather nor McGregor were anywhere near the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

All week long, the fighters and promoters involved with the mega-fight on Aug. 26 (August 27 AEST) have been speaking to the media in quick sessions ahead of the main event, which was the press conference where Mayweather and McGregor would spar on stage for the better part of a half-hour. This time around with the fighters nowhere to be found, UFC president Dana White was forced to fill the time with a pair of interviews backstage where he spoke for more than 30 minutes while answering questions from the media.

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Meanwhile, the crowd started to fill up the Barclays Center but there was a feeling of discontent amongst fans, as the start of the press conference continued to get pushed back further and further with no sign of Mayweather or McGregor.

One fan claimed he drove from Boston just for the chance to get a glimpse of McGregor, who he wanted to see at UFC 205 in New York but tickets sold out before he could get his hands on them. The fan could only smile and laugh when asked if he would try to get tickets to the fight, which go on sale on July 24 and range from $500 to $10,000 for ringside seats at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

With over 13,000 fans in attendance, the Brooklyn audience seemed a bit restless as time continued to tick away, before the first person to hit the stage was legendary hip-hop artist Doug E. Fresh - but even his attempt to liven things up fell on deaf ears.

Finally, more than two hours past the scheduled start time, McGregor entered the building wearing pants that looked like something from the 1970’s disco era, no shirt and clad in a long, white mink coat with a serpent on the back. McGregor later confirmed that he was getting a little overheated on the press tour so he picked up the mink coat while shopping on Fifth Avenue in New York and decided to wear it on Thursday so he could go shirtless for the press conference.

“I woke up and I was sweating, it’s hot out here it’s like humid weather,” McGregor said while explaining his rather unique outfit. “So I was like f*** it, let’s go to Fifth Avenue and walked into Fifth Avenue and saw this and I was like I’m going to go topless and rock this [coat]. It’s perfect.”

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