Welcome to the latest edition of As The Conor McGregor Turns, capturing all the drama and excitement caused by the Irish UFC superstar as he cavorts around Las Vegas setting up his next big money fight. Will it be a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather? Is that all an elaborate ruse to get the UFC to pony up more money? Who knows, but let’s see what the interested parties are saying today.
First off, McGregor:
I am in Las Vegas. Floyd has retired on my arrival. pic.twitter.com/z9EcxBJaDr
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) February 15, 2017
Typical McGregor. Call me when he’s not sitting on a throne in tacky overpriced shoes talking smack about Floyd Mayweather. That’ll be news!
Meanwhile, Floyd wants to clear up yesterday’s rumor that a deal has already come together with Conor.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQgql3hgRwV/?taken-by=floydmayweather&hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQhnjsqgyMN/?taken-by=floydmayweather&hl=en
Hmmm, sounds like the UFC legal department may have sent a certified letter to Mayweather Productions letting them know how serious they are about tortious interference. The UFC is famously aggressive when it comes to suing over stuff like that. Even if a fighter is in the process of leaving the organization, they’ll happily set the legal hounds on any fight promotion that dares discuss potential future terms with someone under contract.
This puts a little wrinkle in Conor McGregor’s plans, which he laid out at his ‘An Experience With Conor McGregor’ event in Manchester a few weeks ago.
“Me and Floyd have got to get together and figure it out, the same way Floyd and Manny figured it out,” McGregor said at the time. “Once we come to a set number that I’m happy with, that he’s happy with. Then we go to the customers, we go to the promoters, the buyers. And then we get it done. That’s next. I’ll go to Vegas and I’ll handle the commission, we’ll figure that situation out. And we’ll come to a dotted line and then we’ll go.”
But with Mayweather (and legal jurisprudence) pushing McGregor to deal with the UFC first, his goal of being able to stay in the driver’s seat and dictate terms of the fight promotion is in trouble. And unfortunately, the UFC may be the biggest stumbling block keeping this fight from happening. They don’t want McGregor tied up with some boxing match they feel could end with his value vastly diminished. And it’s very possible they’ll simply say no to the whole thing, forcing McGregor to decide if he wants to go to war with them to make the Mayweather fight happen.
“If he wants to go down that road with us,” Dana White said when he heard McGregor was considering using the Ali Act to fight Mayweather without the UFC being involved. “Let me tell ya, it’ll be an epic fall.”
So for now, this is how the fight stands:
