Paulie has never been more relevant than he is right now. I have a hard time believing that he's been so incredibly naive throughout this whole process. He's always been a savvy, straight shooting guy throughout his whole career so I definitely feel he's had his own agenda throughout this whole spectacle.

You hit the nail on the head though, this is all about promotion and hype. This is about putting butts in the seats and ensuring as many PPV buys as possible. This is the chance of a lifetime for Mac and he's a master at promotion. He's going to milk every dime he can out of this opportunity and building this very public feud with Paulie is simply another way of ensuring another pay day.

Floyd and Conor both are incredibly intelligent business men and will not let an opportunity to make millions pass them by. When you consider what Floyd has done financially with boxing and what Conor has done with the UFC, they both have literally transformed the financial futures of fighters in both sports. The boxers and mixed martial artists owe both these guys a pat on the back and a debt of gratitude b/c they'll be reaping the rewards of what Floyd and Conor built.

One thing I will touch on that crossed my mind, is with Paulie calling the fight for Showtime, I wonder if this didn't play into the whole angle with Paulie's antics. Word around the water cooler has been that Stephen Espinoza, the CEO of Showtime Sports that Conor publicly berated, calling him a weasel for cutting off Conor's mic in the first press conference, was absolutely irate over the way Conor treated him. I could see Paulie maybe getting some licks in for his boss. I don't know whether there's any validity or not to it though, but I could see the angle. One things for certain though, money seems to heal all wounds, so if Espinoza could use Conor for another fight with Paulie, all would be forgiven fairly quickly.

Great article man!! We only have about 2 weeks till fight night!