I know that the Pacman spoke about not wanting to have any exhibition fights, but we will see, when there huge money in the line, maybe he will change his mind.
Money can change his decision and this fight is already guaranteed with a huge price for both.
Both boxers are still hot, they are coming from an impressive wins so sure fans would still want to see them, this could probably be bigger than the last exhibition fight of Conor so he is pushing it, this kind of situation is good since Manny is not hard to convince.
soon Manny's decision will make the people who are waiting this to be realize happy.
I don't think it would be quite classified as an exhibition fight anyway. Conor McGregor is a pro boxer (albeit with a 0/1) record, but is practically at the top of his game in the UFC.
If you had both a kickboxer and a MMA fighter, both at the top of their game in the UFC, nobody would treat it as an exhibition. Though I do understand it's not quite the same going into boxing.
With that said, if Manny doesn't put up his titles in the fight, people won't give the fight the credit it's due, and it practically will be an exhibition.
Shouldn't be any risk in putting up the titles either, since everybody knows McGregor is gonna get whomped.