The whole charade left a sour aftertaste. Laughably now, millions across the globe were duped into paying US$100 to witness the farce thinking it would actually be a contest. They had been cheated. McGregor cracked open a bottle of his whiskey in the ring afterwards to celebrate his share of the loot from the great swindle. It was a middle-finger to everyone he and his partner in crime had screwed.

Since that inglorious night, media-craving Mayweather has revealed he had not trained at all for the reported US$500-million dollar extravaganza, a disclosure that was met with barely a shrug in boxing quarters.

In another sinister twist, there was recently an almost criminally fraudulent admission from Mayweather that he allowed the Irishman to see the latter rounds of their bout, prolonging the spectacle to leave the door open for a potential second bumper pay cheque. Again, this confirmed the suspicion of many in boxing, but it doesn’t make the claim any less reprehensible.

Unfortunately for McGregor, Pacquiao doesn’t know how to play like Mayweather did.

The Filipino has based his career on a high-power, high-output, relentlessly forward-facing fighting style. McGregor would never have come up against anything remotely similar in his own accomplished fighting career.

In terms of a contest, I cannot begin to fathom the circumstances where the Irishman would hear a second set of bells in that fight. The Filipino would simply have far too much in every boxing department for the Irishman.

A quick knockout would be the overwhelming smart money, followed closely by McGregor being pummelled to a standstill before the contest is waved off, also probably very quickly. It would certainly require the handling of an overly cautious referee that night.

Pacquiao recently aligned himself with McGregor’s Paradigm Sports Management, adding fuel to the speculation that he is perhaps angling for a lucrative crossover bout with the MMA superstar.

It’s difficult to imagine there would be much of an appetite for this spectacle among boxing nor indeed MMA fans, so obvious is the outcome. But it was the great number of casual sport fans treating the contest as a once-in-a-generation event that propelled the takings for the McGregor-Mayweather scam. Would there be as much of an appetite to see this among that demographic?

Given the global appeal of both protagonists it is difficult to say, but potential punters would do well to remember the old saying: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.