American referee Byrd to take charge of McGregor v Mayweather

American referee Robert Byrd is to oversee the fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas on August 26th.

It has also been confirmed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission that the fighters will wear 8oz gloves for their non-title, light-middleweight match-up.

Byrd, incidentally, oversaw George Groves's 2015 defeat by Badou Jack, as well as further high-profile fights in Andre Ward's first win against Sergey Kovalev and Saul Alvarez's victory over Miguel Cotto.

The respected Kenny Bayless was the referee for Mayweather's past three fights, but having criticised this one was not considered.

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McGregor, 29, had demanded an international judge for his professional boxing debut against a fighter 11 years his senior, and has been granted that with Italy's Guido Cavalleri.

Burt Clements and Dave Moretti, both of the United States, are the other two scoring the fight at the T-Mobile Arena.