Floyd Mayweather, Jr. indicated that he has indicated that he would fight Conor McGregor if the UFC lightweight champion would take $15 million and a cut of the PPV. Mayweather stated that he was the “A” side and would want $100 million guaranteed plus a bigger share of the PPV.
Doing the ESPN “car wash,” he told Stephen A. Smith on “First Take” that he tried to make the Conor McGregor fight. McGregor stated he would box Mayweather for $100 million.
On a Facebook Live chat with ESPN’s Brian Campbell, Mayweather claimed that the last time he saw Conor McGregor fight in the UFC was a little of his UFC 205 fight on a cell phone while at Boston Celtic Isaiah Thomas’ wedding. He also stated that he Facetimed with Nate Diaz talking about McGregor.
Mayweather was doing the car wash as Mayweather Promotions is promoting fights taking place at the Barclay’s Center Saturday. His fighter Badou Jack, is in the main event fighting James DeGale.
In response to Mayweather’s ESPN interviews, McGregor posted a cartoon of himself standing over Mayweather, holding two belts.
Payout Perspective:
Will a McGregor-Mayweather fight actually happen? While McGregor has obtained a California boxing license, it’s still unlikely that the fight actually happens. McGregor is still under contract with the UFC and unless they get a cut of this endeavor, I would suggest they remain the greatest obstacle (not the salary squabble) from this spectacle from happening.
Fight Fan says
Commission would never approve of this fight.
Joke: Why can’t mcgregor box?
Answer: because he can’t tapout! Lol
jf says
@ Fight Fan
A commission would never approve of this fight??? What fucking planet are you from. DADA 5000 was given a license against Kimbo, 50 y olds fought each others in freakin Bellator. Are you joking??
McGregor already has a boxing license. He was an junior boxing champion before turning to MMA. EVERY athletic commission would approve this fight, wetting their pants at the hefty cut they would get from it.
ETOPS says
Basically, not going to happen. Its a celebrity fight.
Wil says
There will never be a successful mma to boxing move, its just not going to happen, ever. Boxers train from childhood to master a very specific skill set, often at the Olympic and international amateur level. I am happy to see the amateur boxers dominating in UFC but pro boxing against even contender level let alone championship or all time great level is a horse of a different color
Diego says
I think this fight makes money. I don’t think the outcome is in doubt. And I also don’t think it will happen.
It is rare to see a professional become a champion in different kinds of combat sports (boxing, kickboxing and MMA). Holly Holm is the only person I can think of who was a bona fide boxing and MMA champ. However, that was in very weak divisions. Maybe you can count Overeem but he was the SF champ in MMA and he won one tournament in K1 – he was never really considered the “best in class” in either sport.
Cyborg – who has been absolutely crushing every opponent in MMA – lost her last kickboxing fight against a champion-level opponent. And you can argue that kickboxing is what she does in the cage, but still, it’s not the same as a real kickboxing match.
At the pro level combat sports require too much specialization. Yes, you see some amateur boxers take up MMA and do well (you also see amateur wrestlers, judo and jiu jitsu players do well) but you don’t see folks who have dedicated themselves as professionals to the point where they become champions then cross over successfully.
Diego says
By the way, Cyborg’s kickboxing opponent is 40-0-3 in that sport, but only 1-3 in MMA with all her losses coming by way of stoppage due to strikes. So there you go.
Cutch says
Holly Holm started as a kickboxer and has trained since day one with Winklejohn, she moved over to Boxing because of money and then over to MMA when there was more money there (for women) she has been training with MMA fighters since they merged with Greg Jackson’s camp about 10 years ago, I’m guessing she didn’t train MMA for half that time though, given how poor her BJJ is.
Random Dude says
Cyborg’s kickboxing loss wasn’t that bad actually.
Every time Cyborg went on the offensive her opponent would turn her back and the ref would break and stop the action without a penalty or warning to Cyborg’s opponent. That should have been a foul and eventual disqualification, but the ref did not call it and it totally shutdown Cyborg’s offense.
In a clean fight I don’t know if Cyborg would have lost.
Random Dude says
Tony Weeks was the ref by the way.
d says
Good point Cutch, Holm is not a good example of a boxer crossing over. She was a kickboxer first.
Also,
d says
“There will never be a successful mma to boxing move, its just not going to happen, ever. Boxers train from childhood to master a very specific skill set, often at the Olympic and international amateur level. I am happy to see the amateur boxers dominating in UFC but pro boxing against even contender level let alone championship or all time great level is a horse of a different color”
Absurd.
Bernard Hopkins was 23 when he turned pro, this after doing a 5 year prison sentence.
Sergio Martinez didn’t even start boxing until he was 20.
This notion that someone is immune to picking up a sport just because they didn’t train at a young age is senseless. If you are athletic enough, it could only take a few years to get to a very competitive level.
Also, what amateur boxers are you referring to that are dominating in mma? Are you using McGregor? Last time I checked he’s cross trained very thoroughly.
Point being, there is just as much of a chance of a world class boxer crossing over into mma and winning a title as there is a world class mma fighter crossing over into boxing and winning a major title. This argument is ridiculous.
d says
This fight will never happen, but if it were to happen hypothetically, McGregor should be the A. He is the bigger draw. His last 3 fights did well over 1m buys each fight with low level opponents. Mayweather hasn’t broken 900k buys in 4 out of his last 6 ppvs. The only ones he went over that for were against other ppv stars like Canelo or Pacquaio. Conor also reportedly made more than 15m for his last fight.
TOPS E says
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11775976….reality hahahahaha
Wil says
TOPS E, absolutely, this is the reason White is looking to bring back Lesnar…the UFC needs its blonde hype jobs…you will see Northcutt and Van Zant pushed like never before and of course Lesnar as well. White DID NOT want Rousey to lose and certainly not get trounced by such a sound amateur boxer like Nunes
d says
Yeah, White is really big on those blondes like Anderson Silva, Cain Velasquez, Tito Ortiz, etc.
Amateur boxers do not know how to fight in mma. Your ignorance is running wild.