Brett Okamoto says identical prediction of potential Mayweather-McGregor fight was a joke with Oscar Willis

Two prominent combat sports reporters bizarrely made the exact same prediction about an unannounced boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor at the exact same time early Sunday morning, posting near-identical tweets that raised suspicion among followers.

At 3:27 a.m. ET on Monday morning, both ESPN MMA reporter Brett Okamoto and Oscar Willis, an MMA reporter for a McGregor-owned MMA site called The Mac Life, made posts on X about a yet-to-be-announced boxing match featuring two of the biggest names in combat sports, Mayweather and McGregor, with the two reporters’ posts differing by just one character.

Willis’ post read as follows:

“My call: Mayweather | McGregor 2, Zuffa Boxing 2027.”

Okamoto’s post differed only in the use of an additional period.

“My call: Mayweather | McGregor 2, Zuffa Boxing. 2027.”

The strange timing and near-identical nature of the posts raised a red flag for onlookers.

I don’t feel comfortable seeing this. It’s real. Both posted at the exact same minute last night including the unusual character of | for a matchup instead of vs. or x or something standard. Otherwise, the only difference is one period. #UFC329 pic.twitter.com/lMcRyoFCY5

— Jay Pettry (@jaypettry) July 13, 2026

Hey Brett, why did you and Oscar both post the same tweet at the same time?

Great minds think alike? https://t.co/Zb14oh8T6p pic.twitter.com/p2tlBRIH3w

— VampiricLegz (@VampiricLegz) July 12, 2026

Further fueling suspicions, both Okamoto and Willis didn’t reply to growing social media comments about the tweets and neither have posted since these tweets.

But Okamoto, in a statement to Awful Announcing, says the public reaction is much ado about nothing, and that the identical, simultaneous posts were the result of a late-night conversation with Willis after UFC 329, in which both reporters agreed McGregor’s next fight should be in boxing.

“Oscar Willis and I are good friends, we were discussing and debating every aspect of the event that night in person as we always do, and both came to the conclusion we thought it would make a lot of sense for McGregor’s next fight to be in boxing rather than MMA. We then playfully argued about who came up with the idea first and thus, had the right to tweet it, before agreeing to do it simultaneously, word for word, which is very much in line with our sense of humor,” Okamoto said. “The idea of any ‘third party guidance’ is, candidly, laughably ridiculous.”

Willis also got back to us with “We were sitting next to each other and being goofy.”

McGregor made his highly anticipated return to the UFC on Saturday, lasting just 69 seconds in a rematch against Max Holloway that ended in what many speculate was a torn ACL for the Irish superstar. With a serious leg injury to rehab and a massive payday to be had in a fight against Mayweather, a marquee boxing match, where he can avoid kicking and grappling, might make more sense than another return to the octagon. Zuffa Boxing, of course, operates under the same parent company as UFC, and McGregor is still under contract with the promotion.

ESPN was contacted about Okamoto’s post and did not respond to a request for comment.