One of @FloydMayweather's birthday wishes? A possible matchup with @TheNotoriousMMA. pic.twitter.com/qRjHmUyBtY
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) February 25, 2017
Following Conor McGregor’s recent trip to Las Vegas to try and meet face to face with Floyd Mayweather ended with nothing more than a few social media jabs between the two, McGregor tried to blame Mayweather for ducking him. But Mayweather certainly sounded interested in making a potential billion dollar superfight between the two happen. Ringside at a ShoBox event in California, Floyd made it clear that he was ready to come out of retirement to fight Conor.
“I’m here to say today, 2-24 on my birthday, they keep throwing the Conor McGregor name out there,” he said. “Conor McGregor, like I said before, I’m here let’s make it happen. … Let’s give the fans what they want to see. There’s only one fight out there that’s important and that’s Mayweather and Conor McGregor.”
When asked what chance a non-boxer like McGregor would have against an undefeated pound for pound great like Mayweather, Floyd built Conor up as a legitimate opponent.
“I mean because every time Conor McGregor goes out there and competes and wins, he does it standing up,” Mayweather said. “When Conor McGregor did lose, he lost on the ground. He didn’t lose standing up. So he’s a hell of a fighter and a very, very tough competitor and he has the will to win. And the UFC gloves is no different from boxing gloves, they just a little bit smaller. But if a guy got power, he got power and Conor McGregor got power.”
That’s some decent spin right there. A more cynical response would be “It doesn’t matter if Conor can’t possibly win this fight, it’ll still make each of us hundreds of millions of dollars!”
On the plus side, it sounds like there’s not going to be a protracted duck dodge dip dive and dodge period surrounding negotiations for this fight. Floyd’s on board. Conor is on board. The only party that now needs to step up and make things possible is the UFC. Mayweather said as much at the end of his interview.
“Once Conor McGregor speaks with the UFC and his bosses, then we can make it happen,” he said. “Because we already know that Floyd Mayweather is his own boss.”
