Showtime exec pumps brakes on talks of ‘Mayweather vs McGregor’ breaking PPV record

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Conor McGregor has taken a break from his mixed martial arts (MMA) duties to try his luck at boxing, in what is being billed as a “Money Fight” against undefeated pugilist Floyd Mayweather.

Probably because everything is so damn expensive, much to the chagrin of housewives in Iowa.

The Mayweather-McGregor pay-per-view (PPV) costs upward of $100, while the tickets have gone as high as $80,000. There is probably no other way to pay the exorbitant salaries of the two combatants headlining the show.

There is definitely a massive amount of hype for this weekend’s big shebang, co-promoted by UFC and its band of merry men, but will it have the legs to break the PPV record set by Mayweather vs. Pacquiao?

Showtime exec Stephen Espinoza talks to MMA Junkie:

“I am definitely on the fence. I do not believe it will just because I never believe it’s going to be that. I’m just conservative by nature. Do we have the potential? Absolutely. In retrospect, a lot of predictions, including mine for Mayweather-Pacquiao, were in the 3 to 3.5 million, which we thought were borderline crazy. To surpass that by 30 percent is a shock. We all walked away form that event saying we would never see anything like that again in our lifetimes. To be here two years later talking maybe 5 million, maybe 4 million would be impressive. It’s crazy that we’re even talking about that record being in play.”

Assuming the record is even real.

Just how many fans are willing to part with that sort of money when real-time results can be found online remains to be seen. The action gets underway in roughly 48 hours from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

See the full fight card here.

Until then, you can get up to speed on all thing Mayweather vs. McGregor right here.