It doesn’t bode well ahead of a bout that promises to be even more dull. Mayweather will win comfortably by a method of his choosing.

Plenty of people have labeled the bout an embarrassment for boxing – is this really the biggest fight that can be made?

It’s a fair question, but it’s worth looking at the other side of the coin and realising that it’s also an indictment of the current state of the UFC.

The fact that Dana White would even allow this fight to go ahead, illustrates an uncomfortable reality for the the company. It needs this sideshow as much as boxing, probably even more at the present time.

Ever since White and business partners the Fertitta Brothers purchased the company that was on life support 16 years ago, it’s been continually on the up.

In 2017, for the first time, it has hit a plateau. McGregor is the life-raft in an otherwise bare cupboard of stars following Ronda Rousey’s stunning fall from her perch.

Truth was Rousey was a pioneer in a new division that was seriously lacking in depth and was never as good as we, or she, thought she was.

Rousey’s hubris in attempting to strike with a decorated striker in Holly Holm ended as we should’ve all expected.

Holm’s mixed fortunes since – 1-3 in her past four bouts –  highlights how thin Rousey’s veneer of invincibility really was.

With one high kick from Holly Holm, the UFC lost it’s biggest cash cow and it’s greatest “crossover” draw.

Crossover stars are vital in a sport fighting a constant battle for validity against hysterical cries from the “think of the children” crowd for it to be abolished.

Rousey was dismantled by Amanda Nunes in her #fearthereturn bout. Just last week Nunes withdrew from her second title defence against Valentina Shevchenko on the day of UFC 213.

It was just the latest hiccup in what’s been a string of disrupted, underwhelming cards since the disaster of UFC 200 last year.

First McGregor was pulled from a highly anticipated rematch with Nate Diaz for refusing to fulfill media commitments.

Then Jon Jones returned a positive drug test the week of the card, meaning his light-heavyweight championship bout against Daniel Cormier was also pulled.

A greatly faded legend in Anderson Silva was called in to rescue the bout with Cormier bear-hugging him for three rounds to win a decision.

In the other featured bout Brock Lesnar – possibly the most limited heavyweight champion in the company’s history – did the same to Mark Hunt for five rounds.

He subsequently failed a post-fight drug test, the latest in a long-line of former champions to do so in a sport with a sordid PED history.

What was supposed to be a milestone night turned into one of the worst PPV cards in recent memory. 

Since then, McGregor has been on the rise but everything else for the UFC has either flattened out, or is in decline. 

Not that long ago Anderson Silva (10 title defences) reigned over the middleweight division. Georges St-Pierre (nine defences) was the welterweight king and Jones (eight defences) ruled the light-heavyweight division.

Jose Aldo, who would later be dramatically be dethroned McGregor, had defended the featherweight title seven times and was the major star in Brazil, one of the sport’s heartlands.

Put any of them on a fight-card and it was box-office gold. A look at the current list of UFC champions hardly inspires such awe.

Demetrius Johnson (10 defences) is looking to set a new record for title defences in his next bout, but he fights in an under-appreciated flyweight division that the UFC is considering abolishing altogether.

Women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk (five title defences) is the only other truly dominant champion in any division and, like Johnson, also battles the public’s disregard for lighter weight classes. 

Elsewhere, Stipe Moicic (heavyweight), Cormier (light-heavyweight) and Tyron Woodley (welterweight) have two title defences to their name.

Middleweight champion Michael Bisping has just one defence – against a 46-year-old Dan Henderson – while Max Holloway (featherweight) and Cody Garbrandt (bantamweight) are yet to defend their belts. 

McGregor vacated the featherweight belt without defending it and is yet to defend the lightweight belt he claimed with a win over Eddie Alvarez (who was in his first title defence).

For years we thought the UFC was simply going to swallow boxing up, that boxing’s place in global sporting significance would die with Mayweather. In reality, it’s experiencing a resurgence. 

It has a highly anticipated middleweight super-fight between Canelo Alvarez (51-1-1) and Kazakh destroyer Gennady Golovkin (37-0) on the horizon. The winner of that bout becomes Mayweather’s heir-apparent.

It’s also riding the wave generated by British heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua who fought a 12-round classic with former champ Wladimir Klistchko in front of 90,000 people at Wembley in April.

With the potential bouts against the likes of Tyson Fury or American WBC champ Deontay Wilder in the offing, experts suggest he could quickly become the world’s most marketable athlete. 

For fans like this one, that doesn’t really matter. I can’t wait for Canelo v GGG, I can’t wait for Cormier v Jones next weekend.

As a huge fan of both sports, I will watch both in tandem, not in competition. 

But in the wider battle for hearts and minds, for the first time, the UFC has – pardon the pun – a fight on its hands.