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Mayweather-McGregor winner to get gaudy Money Belt from WBC

August 25, 2017
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. (L) and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor face off during a news conference at the KA Theatre at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino on Wednesday in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two will meet in a super welterweight boxing match at T-Mobile Arena on Aug. 26 in Las Vegas.  — AFP
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. (L) and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor face off during a news conference at the KA Theatre at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino on Wednesday in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two will meet in a super welterweight boxing match at T-Mobile Arena on Aug. 26 in Las Vegas. — AFP

LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor aren't just fighting for money in the Boxing spectacle of the summer. The winner also gets The Money Belt.

The World Boxing Council has created a special prize for this weekend's 154-pound showdown, which isn't actually for any real WBC championship.

Instead, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman on Wednesday revealed the gloriously blingy Money Belt, which is studded with 3,360 diamonds, 600 sapphires, 300 emeralds and 1 1/2 kilograms of 24-karat gold on green Italian alligator leather.

Sulaiman grinningly showed off the Money Belt and Mayweather posed for photos with it after a news conference for Saturday's show.

The WBC also created a similarly shiny monstrosity for Mayweather's 2015 bout with Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather was a longtime WBC champion before his retirement.

Jones facing questions after failing drug test

Jon Jones, meanwhile, will need an awfully good explanation for the latest major setback in his checkered mixed martial arts career.

Jones could be facing a multiyear suspension after the US Anti-Doping Agency notified the UFC light heavyweight champion of a potential violation of the promotion's anti-doping policy.

UFC President Dana White said Wednesday that the promotion likely won't know for several weeks whether the test results will be confirmed after an examination of Jones' backup sample. Any potential discipline must wait until after the adjudication process afforded to every fighter.

But unless some extraordinary reason surfaces for Jones' latest failed test, the man widely considered the world's best pound-for-pound fighter is facing another lengthy absence during his prime.

"At this point, who (cares) what I think? He's done enough damage to himself," White said while promoting McGregor's boxing showdown with Mayweather this weekend.

"His dad said it: Jon is his own worst enemy," White added. "Boy, is that true. But sitting here today, it's not over yet. He's got to go through the process. Maybe there was something crazy that happened for this stuff to get into his system, so I don't know."

Jones has been provisionally suspended by USADA, which administers the UFC's anti-drug policy. The California State Athletic Commission also has jurisdiction over Jones, who regained his light heavyweight title July 29 with a third-round stoppage of Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 in Anaheim. He failed a test conducted on a sample collected one day before the bout.

"If this holds up, and he ends up getting (a suspension of) two, three (years), it's probably the end of his career," White said. — Agencies


August 25, 2017
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