Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather's stupidity proves why this really is a freak show that the public is to blame for

Two unlikable characters need this farce more than anyone, but boxing certainly doesn't and by buying into it we are condoning their words and behaviour

The exchange went as follows. In front of a baying Toronto crowd of easily entertained adults, the sort that'd get giddy and aroused by verbal sparring in a chip shop at 3am, Floyd Mayweather grabbed an Irish flag and wrapped it around his shoulders. Chest out as always, on what lazily encompassed part two of a world tour of just three stops, Conor McGregor predictably got on the microphone and resorted to what he's becoming better known for than even his truly impressive MMA ability.

“If you do something with that flag I'll f*** you up,” he said like a thuggish teen. He then took a backpack belonging to his opponent, pulled wads of cash from it and laughed, “That's it? That's it? There's about five grand in here. F*** me.” At this point arguably the finest boxer ever squatted down and pretended to go to the toilet as the Irishman again roared with the conviction of a WWE star, “You do something with that flag I'm going to f*** you up on this stage”.

Just consider that lot for a moment before we move on.

The figures around Saturday's fight are startling. While both will make a number with eight zeroes at the end, there'll be plenty left over for everyone else involved to divvy up. In fact as a contest, revenue is said to top the $600m mark, with sponsorship estimated at $22m, ticket sales at $77.1m via an average seat coming close to $4,000, and pay per view smashing the sweet science's high at a projected $455m. But think for a second as to why people are buying into this in such numbers as it's certainly not for the bout itself as even pigeon-holing this as sport is awkward.

In one corner is a guy that the influential website Boxrec.com rates as the best pound-for-pound pugilist of them all, ahead of Carlos Monzon and Rocky Marciano, Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns, Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali. In the other will be a guy that was so limited when it came to boxing that he left it behind after taking a beating in the early stages of the Irish amateur intermediate championships many years ago. Yet even that reality is lost to the hype and hyperbole that McGregor induces, when his talent in his own sphere means he shouldn't need exaggeration and outright lies. As one former Irish Olympian puts it when remembering his quality, “In boxing he couldn't and wouldn't beat eggs. But joking aside, he wasn't at the standard of even that. Today he wouldn't even win an Irish title at his weight. That's the level.”

At best, while their respective arts have some similarities, it would be like putting Farah and Bolt against each other in a 10k race as they are both track stars. At worst it brings to mind the Dougal line in Father Ted. “Sampras, like Pete Sampras. You know, rabbits, tennis, you know that whole connection there.” In that sense it's farce packaged as fierce and, if there's nothing untoward in an oft-shady game, even in a sport where one punch can change the world, it's already a forgone conclusion.

There is of course previous in what reminds of 19th-century vaudeville. In 1976 even Muhammad Ali was tempted to the pay-out as he entered into a contest with pro-wrestler Antonio Inoki. After 14 seconds the Japanese got onto the canvas in a crab position, Ali didn't throw a punch until the seventh round as a result, threw a total of six across the full 15 rounds as he roared “coward” at the man crawling around in front of him, and by the end so little action had occurred it was a draw. We should learn from that history as while it won't be that bad, there's nothing to suggest it will be a whole lot better. So if it's not the competition or quality, why are people in the UK forking out £19.95 and in Ireland €24.95 and in the United States up to $99.99 to watch it in their living rooms?

Floyd Mayweather needs this fight to pay off a huge tax bill (Getty)

At a juncture where culture has been corrupted to the point that the Kardashians wield influence and Donald Trump rules them all, then perhaps this is the perfect sporting event for its time and its place, a tiny microcosm of real life played out in a ring. But we need sport now to be a refuge not a representation and that's a great tragedy. If the bar always finds a way to go lower, then this is sport hurrying along its brutal and depressing descent. All in all, this fight is the ultimate triumph of marketing in modern sport and given modern sport that's some serious going. Buy it because you're told to.

More frustrating still is that while these two desperately need it, who outside of them needs it? Boxing certainly doesn't

Neither are particularly likable characters. A woman-beating American that comes across as a racist against an Irishman with strong friendships and links to the notorious Kinahan drug cartel in Dublin that also has comes across as a racist. In the last few weeks alone he has told Mayweather in the current climate to “dance for me boy” and described black people in a gym as “dancing monkeys”. As for context and previous on his need to paint people in the worst light by what he classes as humour and a sales pitch, he previously called German fighter Dennis Siver “a Nazi”. And amid the desperate defence by those who support him when trying to explain away such remarks, we're reminded that if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks, then it's probably a duck.

The stupidity of this whole farce shows why Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather is a complete freak show (Getty)

However, we knew about these characters and what they stand for long before this lipstick-on-a-pig match-up that gets away with its ugly truth because of the event junkie and the way of modern-day thinking. So this one is ultimately on us. The mirror can often be the hardest place and from fans in a frenzy over water sold as wine, to the media trying to make this out as unpredictable and interesting due to the self-fulfilling nature of such click-bait, then we are all to blame too. They act how they act, while we pay them for it and tune in, ultimately justifying their words and behaviour. You get what you tolerate, never mind embrace.

More frustrating still is that while these two desperately need it - Mayweather to pay a tax bill and McGregor to stay in the limelight and be the centre of attention - who outside of them needs it? Boxing certainly doesn't as, despite those that fairly compare it unfavourably to the past, we've already seen 90,000 show up at Wembley this Spring for Anthony Joshua's exhilarating defeat of Wladimir Klitschko, in June Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev got into the same ring, and next month in the same building as this, one of the biggest and best fights in years will happen with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin going at it. Worse again, we don't need it either.

Fans buying into the fight are effectively condoning their atrocious behaviour (Getty)

Back at that embarrassment in Toronto where two sporting stars put aside whatever respect they had for themselves, never mind for each other, there was a predictably thick ending to the above exchange. When given his flag, and after all his threats, it was McGregor that flung it to the ground in a rant. It surmised the stupidity of everything around this bout. A fitting moment for a freak show.