2018 has seen a definite ‘Will they / Won’t they’ vibe surrounding a Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor rematch, either in the UFC or a boxing ring. Mayweather has spent the past two months actively courting the speculation, going so far as to post photoshops of himself in a cage with the caption “Billion Dollar Man.” For McGregor’s part, he’s been responding with mockery on his own Twitter and Instagram, but seemed to put a nail in the fight’s coffin with his latest social media message.
“I am happy for Floyd and his recent announcement that he is out of these current fight negotiations,” McGregor wrote. “It is the reason I never seeked the rematch in the first place. I was happy for him in retirement.”
“My game is a very unforgiving one. It is not like other games. I understand completely him staying retired. I will now carry on in my negotiations and see where it goes. Have a great retirement Junior. Now come here and give your old man a hug for old times sake. I’m proud of you son.”
He finished off the post “Yours truly, Senior.”
It’s hard to tell whether this is just the latest round of jawing between the two smack talk GOATs, or if McGregor really means what he says about Mayweather being ‘out of these current fight negotiations.’ Conor has been in serious talks with the UFC regarding his return since the middle of January, and they’re the ones putting forward potential opponents. If a fight with Mayweather isn’t coming together, it’s about time they move on to more realistic money making opportunities, like taking on the winner of the Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov fight at UFC 223 in April.
That fight is supposedly for the UFC lightweight belt, which is currently wrapped around the waist of Conor McGregor. Whether he gets stripped probably depends on whether he signs on the dotted line in the next few weeks to face whoever wins between Khabib and Tony in Brooklyn. The UFC is already banking on things falling into place a certain way, reserving a stadium in Moscow for September just in case a Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor superfight in Russia could go down.
As always, there’s a lot up in the air and who knows how it could shake out. But this could be a sign that McGregor is putting aside the (lucrative) possibility of another Mayweather fight and getting back to the business of building his UFC legacy.
