It’s strange to see hypothetical dream matchups actually happen in combat sports. The Fedor/Brock Lesnar fight was hyped for years with way more work from Dana White and it never materialized. It took years for GGG/Canelo to finally happen, now we have, slowly but surely, the Conor McGregor/Floyd Mayweather fight coming together. Even a year or two ago, no one in their right mind would ever believe that Floyd Mayweather would fight a UFC champion, now here we are, with Dana White flatly stating that he and Conor have a deal, they’re moving forward and only negotiating with Floyd stands in the way. This is really happening.
“It’s either going to happen this year or it’s never gonna happen at all. This isn’t something that I’m gonna spend a bunch of time on, like I’m not gonna dedicate the next three months of my life on it. Conor wants to fight twice this year and one of those fights is Floyd if possible.”
Floyd does insist on being the A-side of the fight so he can try to guarantee himself a cool $100 million payday at least, and it seems like egos are getting out of the way which will allow that payday to work for all parties. McGregor has said he’s making way more than the estimated $40-50 million he’s potentially looking at for the fight (after PPV), but it all depends on the UFC’s cut and a plethora of other factors. Dana White reminded us all of that at the UFC 211 post-fight press conference:
It’s also reassuring to know McGregor wants to fight twice this year. He has yet to defend a championship belt, and the last thing we need is yet another interim title in the UFC.
