The trash-talking has already started between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor ahead of their fight in August.
The NBA has been in town and has played to good crowds.
And, yes – football is on the horizon – sooner than you think.
Discussion Highlights:
The Mayweather-McGregor fight is August 26, about six weeks from now. The books have been narrowing the odds between these two. Is there a thought McGregor might actually win, or is this a case of sports books trying to cover themselves in case does?
They're just trying to balance the incoming money that they've seen so far. I do a show every week at the South Point Sports Book, and their directors this week told me that it is the biggest difference in ticket count that they've ever seen for any sporting event.
It is so lopsided right now in favor of the McGregor ticket count that they would actually take bets for more than $1 million on Mayweather. So, realistically this fight should be – McGregor should be 25 to 1. I actually think it should be higher than that. I don't think he has a chance at all to even hit Mayweather, but every person betting the fight right now is taking McGregor. That's only going to continue until they're going to see a lot of sharp money come back in Mayweather on the other side. So, I don't think they think they can lose this bet – basically it would be a miracle – but when everybody bets one side they have to adjust.
People are saying that, no matter the outcome, McGregor wins.
I totally agree with that. He's already won. So, when the press conferences were going on for this fight and they were a couple spots here in the U.S. and in Canada and in London, the reaction to McGregor and what he was like on the microphone – he was already a winner after that.
He would never make this much money in the UFC – ever. To have this be Mayweather's 50th fight, he wants to go to 50 and 0. It doesn't matter if McGregor doesn't land five punches in this fight. He could retire tomorrow. He doesn't have to anything ever. This is generational money.
It's crazy money. It's $100 million. It's funny money. So, yes, he is already a winner.
McGregor has claimed he'll knock out Mayweather in four rounds. Might you be skeptical?
Very much so. I've kicked this around with a lot of people to try to come up with a number of how many punches he might land. He has never, ever once in his life been a professional boxer. And in his first pro fight ever, he is going to take on arguably the best defensive fighter in the history of the sport.
The NBA Summer League has been in town. Many eyes are on the Lakers and Lonzo Ball. He had a rough start but it looks like he has improved.
Yes, absolutely. He had a triple-double against the Celtics. The night after he was 1-11 and he couldn't make anything. He played well. He wasn't great. I think he had 11, 11, and 11 [in the triple-double] but then a few days after that, he missed a game against the Kings. He was banged up a little bit. But he came back in a one-point, come-from-behind win against the 76ers. He scored 36 points, I believe 28 in the second half. A lot of them coming in the fourth quarter, obviously. After that game one abysmal performance, I would say Lonzo Ball has been playing really, really well so far after that in the Summer League.
The Summer League is a very tricky thing, and it is very easy to overreact with what we see. Some of these players might go for 35 a night, and they might come out in next year in the NBA and get six minutes. Certainly, some guys will look awesome one night and look ho-hum the next, or they'll stop playing after a couple of games and just leave Las Vegas and be done with Summer League altogether. It is kind of tricky. It is fun to watch while it's here but it is so easy to overreact with what we see.
Football season is almost here. UNLV is scheduled to play Howard for its opening game. Which team is the cupcake?
Howard would be the cupcake on their schedule this year. I'm not opposed to this whatsoever because, for a long time, this program would schedule what is called a money game with a big-name program and they would get their brains beaten in. But at the end of the day, they would be getting a check for $1.1 million and it helps out with the budget and the football program in general. You also cannot have three or four of those games on your schedule. It's good for nobody. The money might be good, but once you get beat like that every single weekend, what kind of confidence is your team going to have? They're going to be shot. So, you need to have some sort of balance.
Did you think it's 50/50 that UNLV makes a bowl game this year?
With their season-long win total in the state and the city, if they go over that they'll be in the mix for a bowl game. I think it's five – right around there – some places it might have been five and a half. And they are supposed to be better. This is another year for Tony Sanchez under his belt. They finally – in theory – have their quarterback with [Armani] Rogers, which one publication recently called him the closest thing to Cam Newton in all of college football.
If they're going to be floating right around their win total than they would be in position for a bowl game.
UNR open their season against Northwestern. Is UNR the cupcake for Northwestern?
No, because UNR has been a better program over the years, clearly. In fact, they've been a pretty good program. I know that they're getting a new coach again. Jay Norvell wasn't exactly the answer there after Chris Ault left. Although they've been down lately, I don't think you can call Nevada a cupcake just because of what the program has been like before Norvell has been there – they've just been too good.
For the new stadium, the Raiders want to use some of the parking spaces that are at UNLV, which is about three miles away. They want to use them for free and UNLV is already paying to play at the stadium. What do you think of the plan?
I think that the city has already given the Raiders the moon and the stars. Why not get greedy at this point if you're the Raiders? You talk to most NFL fans… one of their favorite things to do – in fact, the main reason they like to go to NFL games – is because of the tailgating.
All of this stacked on top of each other, where they want it for free from UNLV – you can take care of it and you've already given all of this stuff, but we want more. Beyond that, you're going to be three miles away from the stadium, and fans love tailgating in the NFL pretty much more than anything else. What kind of tailgating is that set up for? You want to rush over to park at UNLV, tailgate there for a couple of hours and then get on some sort of shuttle bus and take it over to the stadium? What kind of set up is that? It is Mickey Mouse in my opinion.
Mitch Moss, host, Vegas Sports and Information Network
