By Allan Fox: UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor says he’s still interested in fighting former world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a boxing match under the set of rules of the sport. However, McGregor says Mayweather doesn’t have his money, and he wants him to stop name dropping his name all the time.
McGregor says that if Mayweather doesn’t stop talking about him, then he’s going to show up at his front door. McGregor doesn’t say what he’s going to do when he shows up at Mayweather’s house. He would obviously need to get through all of Mayweather’s huge security personnel before he could get to the “Money” man, who is quick on his feet and fast of hand.
McGregor said to Fighthype.com this about a fight against Mayweather:
“Floyd’s afraid of the fight. Floyd doesn’t want the fight. Floyd wants a boxing match, and I’ve already said, ‘no problems. Get my [expletive] money, and when you get my money, then we can box in this boxing match under specific rules that will keep you alive.’ So I’m here. Where’s my money? So if you keep dropping my name and you ain’t got the money, then I’m going to show up at your front door. So we’ll see. Floyd does not want the fight. Floyd wants a match under a certain specific set of rules. I don’t need rules. So I’m open. Let’s see what happens. Right now it’s just talk.”
A fight between Mayweather and McGregor would seem to be undoable right now. Mayweather’s asking price for a fight is $100 million, and McGregor wants a 50-50 split of the revenue. There isn’t going to be $200 million pot of money for a fight between Mayweather and McGregor. There would be if McGregor was known to the hardcore and casual boxing fans, but the fans don’t all follow MMA. This writer has never seen McGregor fight before in his life, and he has no interested in paying to see him fight ever.
I think I’m a pretty typical boxing fan. The fans don’t know who McGregor is, and there isn’t going to be enough MMA fans to make the fight a success. If Mayweather would split the money with McGregor, then I think he would agree to the fight even if it didn’t bring in a tremendous amount of money. It would still likely be more money than McGregor has ever made before. But if Mayweather is going to insist that he gets $100 million for the McGregor fight, then it’s never going to happen, because the money and interest just isn’t there with fans.
McGregor has never boxed before, and he would be badly over-matched against Mayweather. The fans would realize that the fight would be a mismatch. That’s another reason why the fight might not do well on pay-per-view.
UFC president Dana White said recently that McGregor is under contract with him and his company. If there’s to be a fight between McGregor and Mayweather, it would have to be under MMA rules in part. White is talking about McGregor being allowed to kick and elbow.