Mayweather Hurls Homophobic F-Word Slur at McGregor
After allegedly being called a “monkey” off-mic earlier in the week, a representative from Floyd Mayweather’s camp said the boxer decided to use a homophobic slur in the fourth and final press conference on Friday to get even with Conor McGregor. While that same representative went on to say that Mayweather has “nothing against gays or lesbians at all” and that he has “the utmost respect for gays and lesbians,” it hasn’t stopped activists in the LGBT community from condemning Mayweather for his choice of words.
“The response given by Mayweather’s representative is equally troubling,” Hudson Taylor, executive director of Athlete Ally, told TMZ. “If Mayweather truly has the utmost respect for the LGBT community, he wouldn’t resort to using slurs that perpetuate anti-LGBT stigma and hate.”
The moment came during the 15 minutes Mayweather took control of the microphone in front of the London crowd. “We gonna talk about this pussy,” Mayweather said. “You punk. You faggot. You hoe.” Mayweather then picked up McGregor’s water bottle and threw it to the ground when McGregor told him to “sit down and shut the fuck up.”
McGregor was the face of most of the controversy during the press conferences for saying, “Dance for me, boy!” to Mayweather on a couple of occasions while Mayweather was shadow boxing on stage. McGregor also talked about a scene from Rocky III that featured “the dancing monkeys in the gym” during an interview with Guillermo Rodriguez for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which fueled accusations that he was being racist. While McGregor eventually defended himself by saying he’s a “very multi-cultured individual” who “doesn’t even see color” – this came after he told the Brooklyn crowd he’s “half-black from the belly button down” – Mayweather said McGregor crossed a line with his trash talk when “he called blacks ‘monkeys.'”
“I actually didn’t even hear that,” McGregor said about Friday’s press conference. “Look, words don’t — people are so touchy on words. It’s absolutely crazy. If he said that, I could’ve give a shit. What he’s trying to do is switch it up and get the people back in his favor.”
The London press conference was the final one before the fight on August 26th. We will certainly hear more from Mayweather and McGregor before then, only not to the extent we did last week when they both found themselves in hot water.