A couple of weeks ago, Colin Cowherd claimed his “intel” was pointing to a fight between Floyd Mayweather and UFC supernova Conor McGregor in September. A couple days later, McGregor began taunting Mayweather via the fighters’ weapon of choice: Instagram.
Things only escalated on Monday, when Mayweather took to his own Instagram account to post a mock fight poster suggesting the two would be squaring off, live on pay-per-view.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGA9d4kx3Ya/
Seemingly in the interest of squashing this rumor before it gets (even further) out of hand, UFC president Dana White appeared on Cowherd’s show on Thursday to set the record straight: no fight is happening unless it goes through him.
” … I don’t listen to any of that stuff. I don’t read any of that stuff. People will hit me up and they’ll say, ‘Did you see Floyd just posted a poster of them squared off [that] said they’re fighting in September?’ and this and that. I’m like, ‘I don’t care what Floyd says.’ There’s only one way this fight’s happening; it’s through me. Floyd’s gotta call me.
“Floyd and I haven’t talked. The last time I saw Floyd was at the Celtics-Lakers game. Kobe’s last game against the Celtics. I was there, he was there, we talked … but we didn’t talk about [him] fighting Conor McGregor.
“Here’s the reality: I haven’t talked to Floyd Mayweather once [about a fight]. If you look at how long and how hard it took to get the [Manny] Pacquiao fight done — that’s the same sport! Now we’re gonna put two different sports together?
“Listen, Floyd has done a fantastic job of promoting himself. When Floyd was ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd, nobody cared. Then he became ‘Money’ Mayweather, and … try to watch 24/7 or one of those type of shows without Floyd in it. It’s painful. Floyd’s good, man. Floyd knows how to sell. Floyd’s a showman. He goes out and does extravagant, crazy things when he’s filming. He’s smart. He knows what he’s doing.
“I don’t know what his angle is on this thing with Conor McGregor, but he’s not fighting Conor McGregor without calling me. It’s not gonna happen.”
Even though pretty much every MMA and boxing fan already suspected this would be the case, you can always count on Dana White to show up and ruin a perfectly ridiculous rumor.
Here’s hoping Floyd comes to his senses and places a call with White’s office before September rolls around.
