Before Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor meet for a boxing match on Saturday, both fighters need to weigh 154 pounds or less when they step on the scale for the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Friday.
6 things to know about boxing weigh-ins before Mayweather vs. McGregor
Conor McGregor is unlikely to miss weight, but he will likely still have a huge size advantage Saturday night.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
That shouldn’t be much trouble for either fighter. Mayweather spent most of his career in lower weight classes, winning his first championship belt at 130 pounds, while his most recent fight was at 147 pounds.
The focus will be on McGregor, who is heavier than 154 pounds, but cuts weight in the days before a fight to hit the scale at the limit. However, he’s never missed weight, won the UFC’s featherweight title at 145 pounds, and is the UFC’s lightweight champion at 155 pounds. Getting to 154 pounds shouldn’t be a problem.
When and where are weigh-ins?
Television coverage of the weigh-in from T-Mobile Arena begins at 6 p.m. ET, but there are three preliminary fights with six fighters who also need to step on the scale first, so Mayweather and McGregor won’t be out at the top of the hour.
Tickets are free for fans to attend the weigh-in, so you can expect to see the same kind of atmosphere that made each stop of the four-city world tour in July a spectacle.
How can I watch the Mayweather-McGregor weigh-in?
There’s a lot of different ways to tune in Friday. The weigh-in will be televised on Showtime, Fox Sports 1, CBS Sports Network and Sky Sports.
It can also be streamed on Fox Sports Go and on YouTube via the UFC.
Why are weigh-ins the day before?
Plenty of fighters — especially in MMA — cut significant amounts of weight before the weigh-in and then bulk back up on the day of the fight. McGregor, in particular, has packed on about 10-15 pounds worth of water weight in previous UFC fights and held a significant weight advantage on fight night.
One possible solution to even things out and prevent the dangers of extreme weight-cutting would be to have fighters step on the scales just before the fight. But the ramifications of a fighter potentially missing weight makes that unrealistic.
Imagine ordering the pay-per-view for $99.99 and tuning in just before the fight, only to see one of the fighters miss weight and force the bout to be cancelled.
Pushing it back to earlier in the day could alleviate those problems but may just encourage weight-cutting anyway with less time for a fighter to make a healthy recovery. Making it about 24 hours before has been the standard for a while, although MMA has recently pushed it even earlier.
What happens if a fighter misses weight?
The exact contract terms between Mayweather and McGregor have remained confidential, but it’s a definite that a fighter would forfeit a significant amount of his pay for the fight.
It’s possible that the fight could even be called off, but that’s usually a decision left to the fighter who made weight and depends on the amount over the limit the violator was.
Why does Mayweather think McGregor will miss weight?
While there isn’t much reason to expect either fighter to come in over 154 pounds, Mayweather seems convinced that McGregor is in trouble.
“Conor McGregor is extremely heavy right now,” Mayweather told FightHype.com earlier in the week. “Extremely heavy. I think he’s 164, so he’s still got 10 pounds to go.”
He warned UFC president Dana White to “get that extra money” ready for the event if McGregor misses weight. On Wednesday, he repeated his claims to MMA Fighting that McGregor is “struggling” to make weight, although he sounded optimistic that the Irish MMA star will get to the limit.
But 10 pounds is no problem for McGregor. He’s cut more weight in less time and dismissed Mayweather’s comments.
“He knows nothing,” McGregor said. “Fool of a thing. Let him keep praying. Praying for weight, praying for fatigue, praying for me to take a back step, all he’s doing is praying. But he’s praying to the new god of boxing.”
The disconnect may be because of the difference in weight-cutting between boxing and MMA.
“Boxing is a lot different,” McGregor’s nutritionist George Lockhart told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani in July. “A lot of people are like ‘George, you need to get into the boxing world,’ but a lot of these guys just walk right in on weight. Nobody’s hanging on you, nobody’s trying to take you down, so that weight doesn’t really have as much of a factor in boxing.”
But because Mayweather isn’t planning to come in over the 154 pound limit and McGregor is cutting down, that could mean a pretty significant size advantage Saturday night.
How much will Mayweather and McGregor weigh on fight night?
It’s unlikely that Mayweather will show up Saturday night over 154 pounds. It’s entirely possible that he’ll weigh in and be under that limit by a few pounds.
McGregor is likely to weigh in close to or exactly 154 pounds and then bulk back up in the 24 hours before the bout begins. In an interview on the MMA Hour, McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh thinks the MMA star may be as much as 170 pounds for the fight.
”He’ll be up close to that come fight night,” Kavanagh said. “What was he, 168 pounds for Diaz II? What did he say in that clip? He’s a 170-pound Irish gorilla. He’ll be up close to that number.”
That means that the size advantage may be as much as 20 pounds for McGregor when the two enter the ring Saturday night.
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