The inside story on how Floyd Mayweather ended up in Paddy Power’s pants

Boxing’s biggest star donned our iconic briefs ahead of his fight with Conor McGregor…

By / Boxing / 7 years ago

As Floyd Mayweather slipped off his trousers for his weigh-in on Friday ahead of his bout with Irish MMA superstar Conor McGregor the eyes of the world were drawn to a flash of green.

No, it wasn’t wades of the almighty dollar falling from Money’s deep pockets, it was the fact boxing’s 49-0 icon had decided to sport the equally legendary Paddy Power Lucky Pants.

Mayweather is known to be a man of expensive tastes and to satisfy him we had to come up with an extra special version of our signature pants. Costing around £3,000 the briefs, designed in collaboration with Mayweather himself, are emblazoned with the phrase ‘always bet on black’ in an apparent gut-shot to his opponent’s ‘f**k you’ pinstripe suit effort during the fighters’ promo tour for the event.

However, since slipped down to his unmentionables to face-off with the Notorious One questions rolled in on our social channels asking, ‘Paddy, how did you pull it off?’ and ‘Why Mayweather and not McGregor’?

Well it seems like we’ve got some explaining to do.

Leave yourself panting with these odds on May-Mac

A Paddy Power spokesman said: “We can’t reveal any details whether we had talks before the fight with McGregor’s team. Paddy Power had considered asking him about dyeing his beard green, or wearing our lucky pants, but Conor is Notoriously picky when it comes to his sartorial choices – less so when it comes to his choice of insults.

“But Paddy Power has never discriminated. Yes, we’re Irish, but we’re allowed to hang out with non-Irish people, too.

“Besides, Floyd’s got a great, great, great aunt who’s half-Irish.”

Head of Major Brand Activations at Paddy Power Paul Mallon takes up a tale that includes yoga, a nightclub, sweaty palms, tight pants and boxing’s biggest star.

“We took two trunk-loads of custom-made Paddy Power Lucky Pants from Dublin to Vegas to present to Floyd Mayweather – with ‘Always Bet on Black’ worked into the branding at the request of his crew.

“Floyd kept us waiting for a couple of days, so we were getting nervous as to whether we were actually going to meet him. We were supposed to meet Monday, but he went to yoga instead, which is fair enough. So, we eventually met at his Las Vegas gentleman’s club, Girl Collection, at 2am on the Tuesday,” said Mallon.

“It was pretty awkward waiting around for him, to be honest. Some of the girls seemed eager to chat to us. I eventually had to tell them Paddy was my husband to get them to back off as we just wanted to debate who was going to win the fight, honest.

“Anyway, after waiting around for a couple of hours we were ushered into a small back office by a bodyguard – I didn’t know they made humans that big. At first, we barely noticed Mayweather in the corner – he’s quite small, but I didn’t say that to his face.

“We presented him with his custom-made pants – it was his team’s idea to work in the ‘Always Bet on Black line’ as a riposte to Conor McGregor’s infamous ‘Fuck You’ suit stitching a couple of weeks back”, said Paul.

“Floyd seemed quite impressed when we told him the pants cost £3k to make as they were all designed to his specifications.

“He doesn’t do handshakes, but he gave a good double fist pump as a seal of approval.”

A Mayweather source added: “Floyd tried to reign in his trash talking in the final week before the fight because he wanted the pants to be the final nail in the coffin for McGregor’s chances.”

But what magic place did Floyd’s lucky pants come from? Paddy Power’s Merchandise Chief Jenny Callaghan has finally released one of the company’s closest kept secrets.

“Mayweather is no cheapskate and it was a challenge to make a suitable pair of green underpants, especially with the request that ‘Always Bet on Black’ was to be worked into them,” said Callaghan.

“We talked to about 10 different suppliers in total, most who wouldn’t sniff it because of the short lead time; we didn’t tell anyone who or what it was for.

“Those who agreed to give it a whirl took to the sewing machines as opposed to the clothing factories due to limited time frame and in the end we had three different suppliers who agreed to give the pants a go.

“The first that came back looked like my 80-year-old grandad’s saggy underpants, however the next two options were a step-up in design and we sighed with relief. The pair eventually worn by Floyd for the weigh in were created by Leeds-based New Substance.

“All in all I would say we have spent in excess of 10k just to get a pair of pants/shorts that will work for the occasion.”

So there you have it, hopefully that story wasn’t too pants for you!

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