The trash talking has started, finally Conor McGregor came face to face with Floyd Mayweather, and this time it was personal.

As predicted a couple of months ago by your humble servant, the fight of the century will take place on August 26th, when The Notorious Connor McGregor, will take on the undefeated, Floyd Money Mayweather; and boy oh boy are we in for a treat.

In my original article two months ago; McGregor Vs Mayweather - Magic Movement & Money, I predicted a number of things, but most of all I spoke about the different styles and the importance of the two men's trash talk.

Last week this juggernaut of a fight rolled into action, and the fans were given a chance to witness the two fighters facing off, whilst trying to psych each other out. So the question remains; who won this early psychological battle?

Contains NSFW language!

Round 1 - Los Angeles

When Connor McGregor touched down at LAX last Monday morning, he had no idea of the colourful spectacle that awaited him at the Staples Centre in downtown Los Angeles. According to McGregor, he had been told to prepare for a regular press conference, what he actually faced was an 11,000 strong crowd, and an almost Presidential, live debate format.

Regardless of that, Conor started the round well, he focused on Mayweather's diminutive size, claiming that the American's small head, core and hands, would mean that he would knock the legendary boxer out within 4 rounds.

McGregor then went on to say that he didn't fear Mayweather or the limited set of rules that they are due to fight under.

For me this was an early point for Floyd, when Conor said he didn't fear him, a brief smile crept across Mayweather's face. As many a man knows, when somebody says they are not scared of you, it almost always means the exact opposite is true.

However Conor struck back immediately by saying that if they were to have a, true fight, that it would be over within one round.

Floyd's brief smile evaporated.

Next Conor talked about what I highlighted in my original article, which is how Mayweather likes to manipulate the process, as a form of mind games. McGregor pointed out that they just sprang the unusual style press conference, and the fact that he'd have to do a set timed speech, just moments before coming on stage.

He also pointed out that Mayweather's insistence that they fight at 154 llbs, was a way of insuring that they wear 10oz gloves. McGregor also pointed out that the gloves had to be of a certain type, not made in Mexico, and not filled with horsehair.

McGregor finished his opening salvo by talking about the few boxing/MMA crossovers there has been in the past, namely Mohammed Ali's $6 million dollar fight with Antonio Inoki; which by the way was one of the worst fights in history. Plus the Irishman also cited James Toney's ill-fated attempt to crossover from boxing to mixed martial arts.

###### McGregor's Fuck You suit.

Floyd remained unruffled.

Next it was the turn of the money to take the mic. He approached it with a swagger, with the air of authority of a man that knew he was in charge. It was obvious right from the get-go, that he wanted to use the size of the occasion to psych out McGregor.

Mayweather whipped up the crowd, he screamed down the mic...

"Hard work!"

His fans scattered amongst the 11,000-strong crowd shouted their reply...

"Dedication!"

"Hard work!"

"Dedication!"

Mayweather smiled, like a king in his court, surrounded by his generals and nobles before a great battle, he cast his gaze upon the crowd and spake once more.

"Well then point to the fucking easy work then!"

Some pointed to McGregor, more did not...

"Yeah, I still got it!"

Then Mayweather talked about how he wasn't a bitch, and wouldn't back down from anyone, and that he would fight McGregor anywhere, be it in a boxing ring, or a UFC octagon. McGregor spoke up from his seat behind the podium..

I felt this last statement was important, it exposed the fact that Conor McGregor has goaded Mayweather into this fight. He literally couldn't stand people saying he was scared of this match up. It also exposes his vanity, he can't bear to think that people believe he would be destroyed in the octagon (which of course he would).

Next Mayweather talked about how he would knock McGregor out on the 26th of August, and started shadow boxing in front of McGregor.

"That's right; dance for me boy, dance for me son."

Hmm, could the fact that McGregor quickly changed the term "boy" to "son", mean that he understood the potential for that term to be construed as a racial slur?

Hard to tell.

Mayweather stopped dancing, then reverted to his trash-talk style, he attempted to use the magnitude of the occasion to psych out McGregor. He apparently produced a cheque made out to him for $100,000,000, claiming that he was so rich he didn't need to cash it in.

McGregor replied; "That's because you owe it to the tax man!" (In relation to Mayweather's 2015 plea to the IRS to have more time to pay his latest tax bill).

This prompted one of Mayweather's best lines, not just of this conference, but all four;

"That's right, I'm the IRS, and on August 26th, I'm gonna tax your ass!"

Things were heating up now, Mayweather then said that he would fight with whatever gloves Conor wanted to, be they 10, 8, or 4 ounce gloves.

McGregor shouted back that they should move to the lighter gloves...

Unfortunately, McGregor's mic had been cut; most likely at the behest of Mayweather's team, and there ended Round 1, because even though Conor was given another mic, it was still cut off, giving Floyd carte blanche, to do and say what he wanted without reply.

For me, the round ended as a spectacle, the moment they shut off McGregor's mic, I would call it a draw, but at the end of the day that is what Mayweather does best, he manipulates the process, in order to get under your skin.

Any points that McGregor lost in the mic down period, he regained in the face-off; the resulting verbal exchange seemed to get to Floyd, and he broke eye contact, using the excuse of turning to Dana White to say something.

It was the face-off, that left us salivating for more.

Verdict: Mayweather win: 10 - 9

Round 2 - Toronto

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy; if this was a physical fight, this is the round it would have been stopped. McGregor now knew what to expect, and he came prepared. What he also managed to do was make sure that his mic would not be cut off again. We can fairly safely assume, that he did this with some pretty flamboyant threatening, maybe he said that if they cut him off, he would snatch Mayweather's mic.

Whatever the reasons, McGregor's mic stayed on throughout, making it more of an entertaining spectacle for us, the watching public.

Grammy award-winning artist, Drake, a native of Toronto, introduced the two fighters to the stage. As will be on the night of the 26th of August, McGregor walked onto the stage first. He stalked, swaggered and stared his way into the middle of the dais.

He gave the impression that the Los Angeles conference had angered him, and he was ready to fight back. A soft female Irish voice sang a beautiful song, delicately juxtaposed to the seething warrior that prowled the stage.

As the Irishman took centre stage, he brought both his hands to his lips, and blew the crowd a kiss, leaving his arms stretched wide. Like Caeser, he looked upon those that had come to honour him, then the moment was broken.

50 Cent's I Get Money cut rudely across Conor's entrance music; there was Floyd, playing the process again. The words; I run New York pounded out the speakers. For a moment, McGregor looked momentarily ruffled, he had clearly expected some kind of gap between the end of his entrance, and the beginning of his opponent's.

However he quickly pulled himself together, like he had suddenly remembered his game plan, he turned clapped and smiled. His fists were pumping, clearly trying to rev himself up to full speed, a yellow emoji ball was thrown at him from the audience, he threw a left hook at it, sending it flying off into the vast 17,000 person crowd, to the delight of all watching.

Then 50 Cent was cut, samples of Floyd Mayweather Junior's voice were played over more music, then a personal track was played; Money Team.

Floyd took his time to come out, as is his want, McGregor prowled around like a caged lion, scowling, snarling, looking at the crowd, almost daring anyone to jump up there and challenge his authority.

Finally Mayweather took to the stage, half dancing, half walking towards his mark in the centre. McGregor's stare bore a hole in him, yet he acted as if he was the only one up there, a couple of high-fives and he was shuffling towards the centre.

The walk ended when he finally stopped dancing, turned to McGregor and simply pointed, the Irish prizefighter responded by extending his hand towards the American, and gave him the, come and get some gesture, the stage was set, the fight was on.

They faced off, they stared, they trash talked each other (without mics), again Mayweather broke eye contact, this time for a split second as he gestured aggressively with his head off to the side.

Game on!

After being introduced Conor came holding his own mic;

"Does this mic work?!"

The crowd answered;

"Yeah!!"

"Well then fuck that one!" He slapped the podium mic out of its stand and sent it bouncing across the stage; perhaps indicating that this time he was not going to be cut off, he had come to say what he wanted to say, and the only way to stop him, would have been to fight him for that mic..

Nobody would dare to do that...

Next, it was like Conor suddenly noticed the amount of Irish flags in the crowd, like he hadn't even seen them before, but now he was tuned in to the vibe of the arena.

Watching, it felt like; as with his fighting style, he was making this up as he went along, adapting perfectly to the situation...

"On the count of three, I want everybody in this arena, to scream at the top of their lungs; fuck the Mayweathers!"

"1...2...3"

Circa 17,000 people replied;

"Fuck the Mayweathers!"

"Nah, nah, nah; we can do better than that... 1... 2... 3..."

He walked over and stood in Floyd's face, and joined the screams of the crowd...

"FUCK THE MAYWEATHERS"

This is my stage...

"...and while we're at it, fuck Showtime as well, dare to cut of my mic, the champ's mic, look at you, you little weasel. Trying to catch me off guard, put me in uncomfortable situations. I thrive on uncomfortable situations, look at me, I'm 28 years of age, getting fighter's cheques, AND promoter's cheques!"

"He's a weasel (to Steve Espinoza, head of Showtime) and he's (to Floyd) a little bitch."

Wow! In one paragraph, he let Money Mayweather know that he had worked out his game, and that it wasn't going to work. This fitted in perfectly with the Notorious's rhetoric, that he knows every move Mayweather is planning to make, in and out of the ring.

Then a furious flurry of verbal jabs and hooks came forth from his mouth, he referred to the 50 strippers on Mayweather's payroll, much to the delight of the crowd. He said that he wasn't going anywhere, challenging anyone to come and try and take the mic from him, or he would; "take over the whole show."

"His head is too small".

"I bounce heads off the canvas"

"He's boxing's biggest bitch".

"He is not a fighter, he's a runner."

"He tap dances his way to points decisions."

"How do I look? Look at how he's dressed, he looks like a little 12 year old breakdancer"

""Coming on stage with his school bag; mate, you're 40 years of age, why are you coming on stage with a school bag? You can't even read!"*

"Showtime executives! It doesn't matter what situation you put me in, I always come out on top!!"

And with that, he stalked back to his seat, the crowd in a frenzy now; waiting for the riposte from the brooding American boxer. Surely he had been sitting there, formulating his response, now it was his turn to shine.

Mayweather rises from his seat, the crowds chanting and booing is climbing to a deafening crescendo, the boxer looks visibily shaken from the assualt and the passion of feeling against him. He attempts to regain composure and control by slowly stalking the stage, coffee cup in hand; finally he takes to the podium.

"Hard work!"

"BOO!!"

"Hard work!"

"BOO!!"

"Hard work!"

"BOO!"

Floyd looks angry, he has lost control of this situation, it is clear he blames the partisan crowd over the trash-talking eloquence of his foe.

"One thing we do know...."

"One thing we do know...."

"One thing we do know, is the fans can't fight for you!"

"Shut your fookin mouth!"

Things went from bad to worse for Floyd, he said that he couldn't read, but did numbers, then asked one of his crew to come over and show McGregor the real money, from his bag.

It felt like he was talking about the cheque again; however all that was inside the rucksack, were a few bricks of dollar bills; impressive to the layman, but not to a multimillionaire.

McGregor laughed...

Mayweather tried to bring it back...

"I like you.."

"Of course you do, you love me!"

Mayweather lost his cool, started shouting in McGregor's face, the Irishman sat back with a, my-work-is-done, look on his face. The 49 and Oh fighter was desperate now, swinging wild, insulting the crowd, saying anything to get back the mental high ground.

At one point he grabbed an Irish flag from the crowd, and draped it around his shoulders and knelt down on one knee. McGregor responded by picking up Mayweather's school bag, threatening to keep it, and fuck Mayweather up right there on stage, eventually the American handed the flag to McGregor, who simply threw it back at him, whatever Mayweather had hoped for, it hadn't worked.

The Face-off:

Mayweather looked like a broken man, unlike LA where he was the first to the mark, he sauntered in the background, almost like he was going to walk off stage without taking part.

He did though, and once more he wilted in the intense gaze of Conor McGregor; the way Conor is behaving, reminds me of how Ali behaved before fighting Liston, by the time of the fight, Sonny Liston said he felt Ali was too crazy to be scared; and that scared Liston!

Verdict: McGregor win: 10 - 7

Round 3 - New York

Mayweather needed to fight back with this one, he needed to do what he does best, and that was take control of the process, and use that very same process to get under the skin of his opponent.

He did so in devastating style, first of all the intros, Conor McGregor in a white, "polar bear" coat, patterned trousers and no top, came out to the sounds of the Notorious B.I.G. For a moment it looked as if he would carry on where he left off in Toronto, he looked out to the crowd, but didn't feel the same love he had in Canada.

Then the arena went dark, we heard Mayweather's voice:

"When they talk about Manny Pacquiao, they say, that's the guy that's gonna fight Floyd Mayweather. When they talk of Mayweather, they talk about a legend."

There then followed a montage of Floyd's best fights on the big screen, punctuated with shots of him training, accompanied by epic, Hollywood movie-style music, the last words rang out as the arena went dark again...

"I worked my whole life to get where I am, and I'm not letting nobody take it away from me."

It was a masterstroke, and set the stage for this being Mayweather's round, McGregor was going to have to work hard to come back from that opening salvo. But that wasn't all, the American then walked out draped in an Irish flag. McGregor looked like he wanted to rush over and rip it off him, his expression was that of a killer, chewing his gum like it had personally disrespected him.

This time around the early face-off produced a full 45 second stare, in complete silence. Then McGregor scored one of the few points he would on this evening, he removed his sunglasses.

This seemed to trigger Mayweather, who immediately started trash talking, McGregor gave him a few seconds before joining in, this small exchange, seemed to cement in both fighters' minds, that Floyd did not enjoy staring into Conor's eyes.

Unfortunately it went downhill from that point for Conor, from trying to rap his introduction, to getting wound up by Floyd's constant referring to his tap out submission to Nate Diaz.

I have to give it to Floyd Mayweather, he played this one perfectly, from completely ignoring McGregor as he tried to knock his baseball cap of his head, to filming selfies with his cell phone. It all got to the Irishman who clearly was beginning to feel the effects of jet lag, and the emotional drain of being on show for 3 days straight.

Mayweather scored points by talking to Dana White, as if they were in on some kind of collusion, he also scored major points by "making it rain" one dollar bills over McGregor. When the Irishman pointed out that they were only ones; Mayweather shot back; "..coz that's all your worth!"

Then came the strangest part of the whole tour, Mayweather, mid speech, suddenly shouted; "Voltron, Power Rangers!" and his whole security team walked menacingly over to Conor McGregor.

The look on McGregor's face said they'd caught him off guard, he looked like a man about to be jumped, his security team, made up of various MMA fighters came to his rescue. He eventually regained his composure, going over to the security team on his own and insulting them, however he was visibly shaken.

Mayweather lapped it up; screaming "Yeaaaahhhhh" at the top of his voice, over and over, for the first time, it looked like we might get the traditional press conference fight.

McGregor looked angry, he fronted The Money Team security again, and then went over to confront Mayweather in the middle of the stage, shirt off and snarling, he looked like a man on the edge of losing control. In the end, it was a combination of the voltron bum rush, and Mayweather's verbal assault that won this one.

"He's a quitter."

"He's a con artist."

"He's a bitch."

"This is where I'm from, I run this show, and throw one dollar bills up on this bitch".

McGregor's best line;

"Take them fucking high-heels off you bitch"

The second face off of the evening went to Mayweather, as did the whole night, though one deadly mistake he made. He showed McGregor jibes, about his size, where getting to him. He wore trainers that gave him around an extra inch and a half to two inches in height, big mistake.

Verdict: Mayweather win: 10 - 8

Round 4 - London

According to Dana White, this leg was as close to Dublin as Floyd Mayweather wanted to get; originally the last leg was scheduled to be in the Irish capital, however the American flat out refused.

McGregor was aware that he had lost the last round, and wanted to get this one back, he was back in a sharp suit, and he danced around the makeshift boxing ring with a smile on his face.

Again Mayweather made his entrance last as long as possible, signalling to all that he was in charge; however as he stood outside the mock ropes of the ring, staring out into the crowd. McGregor came and mimed a slap to the back of the head, even though it was behind his back, Mayweather clearly felt the wind, as he spun around to see what his opponent was doing.

Floyd entered the ring, The Money Team song still playing over the PA, this time though McGregor danced and swaggered, and got in the American's face.

The pre-conference face-off also went to McGregor, for the first time Floyd was not wearing his baseball cap, so Conor took full advantage and went nose-to-nose with the five weight champ. Whatever he said to him, ruffled Mayweather's plumage, and he did not look best happy as the two took their seats.

As usual McGregor took to the mic first, he made the point of reminding everybody that he was fighting in the HMV Forum, in Kentish Town, London, four years ago to a crowd of around 500 people.

He also made the point that he was going to quadruple his net worth, for what he considered, a half a fight, because nobody would be kicking, kneeing, elbowing, or trying to pull his arm out of his socket.

Next he smiled and said hello to Mayweather's daughter; that clearly did not go down well with Mayweather, he gestured that she should retreat to the corner.

Then McGregor turned to Leonard Ellerbe, Floyd Mayweather's manager; after first joking that he is usually well dressed, but didn't live up to standards on that day. He reminded them that he had never even been in a boxing ring before.

He also said that when Mayweather's legacy was destroyed, it would come back on Ellerbe's shoulders. This was a master stroke, and reminded them that they were goaded into this fight, by somebody who wasn't even an amateur boxer, let alone professional!

This was reiterated when he said;

"How the fuck did they let me roll up in here?!"

The closing statements were reserved for mentioning Floyd's high heels, from the day before; pointing out that he should have worn them from day one, apparently so that McGregor wouldn't have noticed the difference.

He then laughed at the security team that were standing outside of the ring. Then came a big moment, McGregor gave Mayweather a friendly pat and rub on his bald head, which clearly made Dana White nervous. The Irish fighter then mimed slapping Mayweather, at one point it looked like the American might rise to the bait and stand up to face him.

McGregor then challenged him to go through with that, when he didn't, McGregor called him a good girl, his delivery was short and sweet, however it was devastating, McGregor had recovered some of the lost ground from the night before.

This was put into stark reality when Mayweather came to the mic, first of all, he made the fatal mistake of trying to grab Conor McGregor's microphone from his table. Quick as a flash, McGregor sprung up and went across to Mayweather's table and grabbed a mic from there.

"I'm too quick for you!"

The crowd roared.

"Take this one off me!"

Again they roared.

Mayweather was getting more and more flustered, he tried to engratiate himself with Dana White, he tried to intimidate McGregor, none of it worked. Any control he had wrested back the evening before, was slipping from his grip and it showed.

He walked behind McGregor's seat, the Irish man turned round to make sure he couldn't return his earlier head ruffle.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna touch you till August 26th"

"I know, but I might not do the same."

"I'm gonna knock you the fuck out!"

"Not with those brittle bitch hands you won't"

Mayweather was growing angrier, he had hoped to display the ultimate dominance, lording it over McGregor in what is practically his home town. Instead, the partisan crowd mocked him, his attempts to soak it up were thwarted by McGregor.

"SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, SIT DOWN SHUT UP!"

This wasn't how The Money wanted to end this, perhaps he could redeem himself in the face off?

Alas no; try as he might to look cool, Mayweather looked deflated, and was constantly trying to disguise micro flinches from McGregors aggressive gestures.

Verdict: McGregor win: 10 - 7

Final Verdict: McGregor win: 37 - 34

TALK IS CHEAP AND NOW WE COUNT DOWN TO THE FIGHT I STILL BELIEVE MCGREGOR CAN SHOCK THE WORLD. WHAT ABOUT YOU; DO YOU AGREE WITH MY ANALYSIS? DO YOU THINK THE NOTORIOUS HAS A CHANCE? OR WILL MAYWEATHER DO WHAT MOST PEOPLE ARE EXPECTING, AND WIN COMFORTABLY? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Cryptogee