The likelihood of a Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather boxing superfight increased greatly over the past two weeks when UFC president Dana White seemingly gave his blessing to the match up in multiple interviews, most recently saying he felt like he had to make the fight happen after everything McGregor had done for the promotion. But for all the recent positive comments, it doesn’t sound like White is about to sign off on a deal over the next couple of days. In fact, according to the very accurate Brett Okamoto of ESPN, there won’t even be a meeting between White and McGregor for another month or two.
“I was talking to Dana White in Las Vegas before I headed out to Buffalo for UFC 210 and what he told me is Conor McGregor, he’s gonna have his baby in May. We’ve known that for a long time,” Okamoto said on SportsCenter. “After the birth of his child, Dana White would like to meet with Conor McGregor in New York. He says that’s right in between where they are, Dana White lives in Las Vegas, Conor McGregor lives in Dublin, Ireland. They’ll meet in the middle in New York and hammer out some of the finer details on how exactly to make this fight a reality. So no set date on that yet.”
That’s a long time for a potential deal to just sit and wait to get worked out, and we have to wonder if it’s due to there being an existing stalemate between Conor and the UFC on how much money each party gets in this deal. That would certainly play into recent comments made by Floyd’s uncle Jeff Mayweather, who recently implied the UFC was going for an 80/20 split, with the promotion taking the 80.
“Last I heard, Conor McGregor has to take a horrendous split,” Jeff said in an interview with NBC Sports Radio. “80-20, percent. He would have to take 20% if he’s allowed to fight. The one thing is that Dana is his boss. I mean, he’ll still make more money than he ever did, but at the same time, that’s a very tough pill to swallow. I mean, if somebody tells you, ‘I’m going to take 80% of your money,’ and you’re the one who’s fighting for it, that’s still a tough pill to swallow, even if you’re making more money than you ever did. But it is what it is.”
According to Jeff, the delays have shut down the start of Floyd Mayweather’s training camp, which had been ramping up until suddenly it wasn’t.
“[Floyd] came in and he said that he was ready to get started on camp for the fight, but obviously it’s not happening,” he said. “When Floyd says something like that, immediately, this gym is shut down, and it’s totally different than it is now. Obviously, Conor hasn’t signed the contract yet so, we’ll have to wait and see.”
If what we’re hearing is true and White won’t even bother to work on a deal with McGregor until May, it could be a while before Floyd returns to the gym. And hey, who knows … maybe that’s part of Conor’s plan. Or maybe this is the start of the whole crazy Mayweather versus McGregor fight unraveling.
