At its core, Showtime’s All Access series is designed to do one thing: Convince viewers to pony up the money for the pay-per-view. The latest season, which follows Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather before their August 26 fight, is doing a hard sell.
Everyone knows Mayweather’s going to win. But in the second episode of this season, we learn about McGregor’s childhood boxing gym and his dedication to training. We also see Floyd Mayweather leisurely riding a bicycle, playing basketball, roller skating and shopping at a luxury mall. Not bad, huh?
Still, I don’t think the title works. HBO’s 24/7 series helped make Mayweather a star before his fights against Oscar de la Hoya, Ricky Hatton and others; All Access continued the behind-the-scenes look when Floyd jumped to Showtime. But in 2017, the most interesting behind-the-scenes stuff is not happening on All Access. It’s on Instagram, Twitter and blogs.
On All Access, the first episode was basically a recap of the press tour everyone already saw on livestream. In the second episode, we see Paulie Malignaggi getting ready to spar with McGregor, but then a voiceover tells us the cameras were turned off before the fight begins. We even see McGregor buy his mink coat on 5th Avenue, but we’re told it was “rumored to cost 30 grand.” The cameras saw him purchase it, but the crew couldn’t see the price? In 2017, for Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, maybe we don’t need “all access.”
There is one aspect of these types of shows that’s always great, however: The over-dramatic voiceover. There is nothing that gets more more hyped for a fight than Barry Pepper slowly narrating a scene. I compiled my favorite overdramatic voiceovers from the first two episodes above. Enjoy!