Stephen Espinoza Talks McGregor-Mayweather Going From Joke to Reality

The thought of a boxing match between Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather was a joke, until it wasn’t.

McGregor and Mayweather are two of the biggest draws the combat sports world has seen. “Notorious” is the reigning UFC lightweight title holder, while “Money” is a multiple time boxing champion. They’ll meet inside a boxing ring on Aug. 26.

Stephen Espinoza, the executive vice president of Showtime Sports recently appeared on “The MMA Hour.” He talked about the “super fight” being viewed as a joke when the media began talking about it.

“I see the stuff on social media just like everybody else. And at first it was just sort of a joke. But then, it persisted, it persisted. In his public comments and his private comments, Floyd has been absolutely consistent. Never mentioned coming back for another fighter other than Conor. He said it enough times and absolutely then you start taking it seriously.”

Despite the hurdles between all parties involved, Espinoza said the bout was too lucrative to not get a deal done.

“Ultimately, you can’t get stuck in certain situations and not try to work through them. I think for the most part you had two professional parties with us and the UFC and we were able to work through a lot of issues. Hats off to Dana and [UFC general counsel] Hunter Campbell and their team over there. We really rolled our sleeves up and got to work. We got something done that a lot of people didn’t think we were gonna get done.”