Last night Conor McGregor cut through all the meaningless soundbytes regarding a potential boxing match with Floyd Mayweather and went into great detail about his desire to make the “billion dollar fight” a reality. It’s not just a fight he wants, it’s the only fight he wants, and he’s willing to spend a year or two outside the Octagon if that’s what it takes to make it happen.
That whole discussion went on at a special ‘An Experience With Conor McGregor’ event in Manchester with over 5000 people attending. Meanwhile, Floyd Mayweather was ringside for the Leo Santa Cruz versus Carl Frampton in Las Vegas, and a Showtime announcer asked him what chance there was the fight could actually come together.
“I believe the fight can happen,” Floyd said with a serious look on his face. “Conor McGregor, he’s a tough competitor. He’s proved throughout the years in the UFC that he can fight standing up. So we’ll just have to see what the future holds. … Can we make this fight happen? Absolutely. That’s what everyone wants to see. And of course Showtime is the biggest and the best in the business, so hopefully Showtime pay-per-view, we can make it happen.”
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Floyd went on to say he thought the match might be contested at 147 or 150 pounds, which is right in between Conor’s 145 and 155 pound divisions. So there’s weight not being an issue. At this point Floyd wants the fight, Conor wants the fight … the only person who doesn’t seem interested in seeing it is UFC president Dana White.
When asked what the chances were that McGregor and Mayweather would fight, he said “I think the chances are about the same as me being the backup quarterback for Brady on Sunday [at the Super Bowl].”
You can forgive White for sounding negative, though. He just had a room full of reporters read back various Conor McGregor quotes implying he’d use the Ali Act to force the fight through without the UFC if he had to. And while McGregor did indeed say that, he also said he’d rather the UFC be involved in promoting the fight. So hopefully cooler heads will prevail. Who doesn’t want to be a part of a potential billion dollar fight?