A buzz started up about Conor McGregor being racist after he referred to a shadow boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr. as "boy," while commanding The Money Team boxer to dance for him. The scrutiny intensified exponentially when word began to get around about a Jimmy Kimmel Live segment that captured the UFC fighter referring to Black actors in Rocky III as monkeys. But despite Floyd himself inferring that he took some of McGregor's shtick to be racially demeaning, Stephen A. Smith, for one, wasn't buying it.
"This notion that Conor McGregor was racist or whatever, I don't want to hear that, and I don't believe that for one second. As an African-American, I did not look at Conor McGregor and say 'He is talking to me'," Smith told Sporting News in an interview published on Wednesday, July 19. "To me, it is him against Mayweather. I did not view it as him talking against black people. I know the difference and that is not what I got from Conor McGregor at all," he said.
McGregor got a chance to respond to the label being slapped on to him during the Brooklyn stop of the Mayweather vs. McGregor promotional tour. Following the Barclays Center presser, he told reporters backstage that he found the notion that he could be racist ridiculous. The Irish champ defended that he is an avid fan of hip-hop and Black culture, citing his "Notorious" nickname and how he entered the arena to music by Biggie.
The consensus among Mayweather's peers appears to have been split. Floyd Mayweather Sr. brushed the "boy" comment off as typical smack talk that is of the nature of boxing promotions. While the other undefeated American champ of note, Andre Ward, made it known that he wasn't feeling McGregor's use of the word. To Smith, it's all psychological. "He was trying to rattle Floyd "Money" Mayweather the way he tries to rattle every opponent," said the veteran ESPN commentator. "And good luck to him because boy is he going to need it."
Source: sportingnews.com
