Most of the world is uncritically excited and curious about Conor McGregor boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr. this weekend. Some corners of the fightsphere, on the other hand, are critical of the contest for various good reasons.
Here are several:
A novice 0-0 boxer being sanctioned by the most important athletic commission in the world to box perhaps the greatest boxer of all-time seems, at worst, reckless with regards to fighter safety or, at best, a cynical money-grab for the state.
The Association of Ringside Physicians certainly doesn’t believe that it is safe for a 0-0 boxer like McGregor to fight a living boxing legend like Mayweather Jr.
We were very surprised this bout was even sanctioned and was going to be permitted to carry on, the organization’s president Larry Lovelace recently told The New York Times. The thing I really fear, truly fear, is that somebody’s going to get really hurt in this upcoming fight.
But what do ringside doctors know about fighter health, right?
Here’s another concern that has gotten some fans riled up – Mayweather is set to make perhaps the most money he’s ever made for a professional fight against what on paper is the easiest boxing opponent he’s ever faced – again – a 0-0 boxer in McGregor.
What’s more, Mayweather now stands to reach the historic 50-0 career mark just by beating a person who has literally no professional boxing experience. That will doubtless sting the hearts of boxing history purists.
Other critics of the matchup are more focused on how much of the promotion for the contest has been filled with racist (from McGregor) and homophobic (from Mayweather) slurs.
Still others have a hard time reconciling placing a repeated and unapologetic woman-beater like Mayweather up on a pedestal as a pugilist.
Those are all fair critical starting points that at different times I’ve tried to make hit home with fans.
The thing about Mayweather vs. McGregor that has perhaps been most stuck in my craw, however, is a question that doesn’t seem to be getting any attention or scrutiny from mainstream media or the beat reporters covering the bout in person. From the looks of many of their social media accounts, many of them may just be too preoccupied with giddily posting images of fight posters, room keys, fight week credential materials, and other pieces of hype and vanity to spend time thinking more deeply about the fun ride we’re all on.
In any case, here’s what I’ve been wondering – Is Mayweather vs. McGregor even legal?
When I ask that question I’m not even referring to the dubious decision to sanction a 49-0 boxer against someone who has never had a pro or amateur boxing career. Sure, this contest should have never been sanctioned for the simple reason of the experience and expertise gap in boxing between the two men.
Yet, the fight is sanctioned. Nevada’s athletic commission head Bob Bennett cited McGregor’s youth, reach, and punching power in MMA as reasons why he allowed sanctioned the 0-0 boxer boxing 49-0 Mayweather Jr.
Bennett insisted that the fight’s revenue-generating potential for his state had nothing to do with his decision. Alright.
That’s a discussion for another day.
For now, I can’t figure out how the fight is legal for a different reason altogether – namely that, by all appearances as well as their own claims, the UFC seems to be playing a dual role of manager and promoter with McGregor in this particular bout.
Such a bleeding over of diametrically-opposed roles – managing and promoting – would seem to potentially not only be a violation of federal U.S. law under the 2001 Muhammad Ali Act which was passed and signed into law to help protect boxers from predatory practices by promoters, but also of Nevada state code.
First, the promotional capacity. The UFC is unquestionably McGregor’s promoter.
They insisted that they had exclusive promotional rights to him not just in MMA but also that he needed their consent to and involvement in any boxing contest. Since the fight was announced the UFC has certainly continued to work as a promoter for McGregor and the bout.
They’ve helped host promotional events, produced promotional editorial material, documentary videos, and are using their official sites and social media accounts to promote the fight. The UFC also went ahead and secured a boxing promoter’s license for themselves.
It makes sense that the UFC is putting forth so much effort to promote the fight, because by their own apparent insistence they had a crucial role in representing McGregor and making the deal happen, and are also reported to have a major financial stake in the bout.
The UFC’s president Dana White has publicly clarified and insisted that he was the one who worked out the fight deal with McGregor and on his behalf with Mayweather’s team.
I’m running the Mayweather-McGregor deal. I’m the only one in on it, he said to TMZ. Who else would be running the Mayweather-McGregor deal other than me? Who?
When we take the UFC boss at his word it sure seems as though the UFC has operated in both a management and promotional capacity with this fight. It has been widely reported that the promotion is also set to take home percentages of McGregor’s purse and of his cut of pay-per-view revenues.
Promoters pay fighters. Managers help negotiate with promoters on behalf of fighters and then take a percentage of a fighter’s earnings.
Here, it seems, the UFC is doing a bit of both with McGregor.
I asked attorney Erik Magraken, who writes extensively on fight-world legal matters, what he thought of the situation. Magraken seems to think that the UFC may have found a loophole in the Ali Act, but also wonders how their apparent role in the fight isn’t a violation of Nevada State Code, specifically NAC 467.104.
What is known is Zuffa now has a boxing promoter’s license, Magraken wrote me in an email. At first glance, one would think this makes them subject to the Ali Act but it appears they are riding a loophole. A pre-condition of the Ali Act applying to a promoter is that promoter must be ‘the person primarily responsible for organizing, promoting and producing a professional boxing match’. To the extent that Mayweather is the ‘primary’ promoter and Zuffa is a lesser co-promoter they may have found a loophole to let them get what they want.
As you point out, the other interesting issue is, how can they be a promoter under Nevada law and be the party that negotiated McGregor’s piece of the pie with Mayweather. That sounds very much like the job of a manager.
How Magraken says Nevada defines the position of fighter manager certainly doesn’t draw narrow parameters that would seem to immediately disqualify the UFC from being reasonably considered a manager of McGregor in this fight’s case.
Nevada law defines a manager broadly and includes anyone who ‘Undertakes to represent the interest of another person, by contract, agreement or other arrangement, in procuring, arranging or conducting a professional contest or exhibition in which such person is to participate as a contestant,’ and anyone who ‘Receives or is entitled to receive 10 percent or more of the gross purse or gross income of any professional unarmed combatant for services relating to participation of the unarmed combatant in a professional contest or exhibition,’ he continued.
Though reports say that the UFC is receiving a percentage of McGregor’s earnings as managers do after White himself insisted that he and the promotion negotiated the terms of the bout, documentation of what entities are doing what work in the business of this fight would go a long way to determining if the law is being followed or not.
The reality is these questions can’t be answered without some degree of speculation as it really is unclear exactly how the contracts between the parties read, Magraken wrote. Without seeing contracts between McGregor and Zuffa it is impossible to know if they meet these definitions but from public accounts it certainly appears that they may.
It would be a good question to ask the NAC how Zuffa is getting paid and if they have acted as both a manager and promoter.
That makes sense and this week I’ve reached out directly to the commission’s executive director Bennett twice to discuss the issue. So far, I haven’t heard back.
That’s alright. This is doubtless a busy week for the commission as it oversees what may very well be the biggest event it has ever hosted.
But the questions won’t go away and can still be answered after the fight happens. They need to be.
People and companies filling the roles of both manager and promoter of a fighter have led to some of the worst and most commonplace abuses of fighters over the decades. Sadly, the practice is still very much a reality in practice both in boxing and MMA.
So, they’ll be plenty of opportunities for interested journalists and the public to dig into the issue, moving forward. As for this particular big-money fight, we don’t yet have answers but we do have good questions needing answers to determine if it is a legal contest.
How is the UFC getting paid for this bout? Have they acted both in a management and promotional capacity?
Nevada’s code is pretty straightforward on the issue of double-dipping on management and promoting roles. It states, An unarmed combatant may not have a promoter or any of its members, stockholders, officials, matchmakers or assistant matchmakers:
1. Act directly or indirectly as his or her manager; or
2. Hold any financial interest in the unarmed combatant’s management or earnings from contests or exhibitions.
The UFC’s president has certainly claimed to have acted directly in capacities that can reasonably be seen as management duties, ie. the negotiation of bout terms. It is also widely reported and not yet disputed by any principals involved that the UFC also has a financial interest in Conor McGregor’s earnings from the upcoming fight.
Is Mayweather vs. McGregor a legal fight? Just days before it is set to take place, we don’t actually yet know.
About the author:
Elias Cepeda is a host of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Rounds Podcast, a staff writer at FloCombat, and has a weekly column for The UG Blog.
