The Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor bout at T-Mobile Arena "generated a live gate" of $55.4M, meaning it "did not come close to breaking the record" for a combat sports event, according to figures from the Nevada State Athletic Commission cited by Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. Throughout the promotion of the bout, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, UFC President Dana White and Mayweather "all said time and again that the fight would break the all-time gate record." While the fight still "generated a massive amount of money from ticket sales, it is the No. 2 combat sports gate of all time, falling well behind" the $72.2M from the sale of 16,219 tickets for the '15 Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mayweather-McGregor is "comfortably ahead" of the No. 3 all-time gate: $20M from 16,146 tickets for the '13 Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez fight, also at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mayweather fights "comprise five of the top six gates in Nevada history." Mayweather-McGregor could still "break the all-time pay-per-view record" (ESPN.com, 9/6). YAHOO SPORTS' Andreas Hale wrote part of the reason the fight fell short of the gate record could be "connected to the fact" that T-Mobile Arena was "not sold out." Only 13,094 tickets were sold (with 137 complimentary tickets given out) in a building that was "configured to seat 17,698." There were "visible empty pockets of seats throughout the arena but all promoters involved were confident that they would still topple the live gate record" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/6).
NEXT MOVE? ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto notes McGregor's longtime coach, John Kavanagh, "prefers Nate Diaz as an opponent for their next fight, which he said might not take place" until '18. IKavanagh on the Irish site 42.ie said that he feels a proposed trilogy with Diaz is the "most exciting option -- but that a turnaround this year seems optimistic." Kavanagh wrote, "It's probably a little late in the day to realistically expect another fight before the end of the year. Even after this hiatus is over, a lot goes into planning and execution of a training camp at our level." Prior to Mayweather-McGregor, White said that McGregor "planned to fight again this year." The UFC has a Dec. 30 date in Las Vegas (ESPN.com, 9/6).
