Mayweather not ready to discuss McGregor rematch yet

By Boxing News - 08/16/2017 - Comments

Image: Mayweather not ready to discuss McGregor rematch yet

By Tim West: Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he and the fans are going to need to wait until after August 26 before he starts discussing whether he’ll be fighting Conor McGregor in a rematch in the octagon.

What’s interesting is that Mayweather isn’t ruling out a rematch with the 29-year-old McGregor. He says he’ll fight UFC fighters if the paycheck is there. Obviously, a rematch with McGregor in the UFC would bring Mayweather a ton of money. He might even make more money fighting McGregor in the UFC than he will in a boxing ring in their fight on August 26.

There are an awful lot of people that want to see Mayweather lose, and if he faces McGregor under the rules of MMA, he’s probably going to lose badly. McGregor has too many advantages in the octagon. If Mayweather has devastating punching power, and the ability to kick and prevent take downs, he probably could beat McGregor in the octagon. Mayweather can’t punch, and he’ll never learn how to kick or prevent a take down from McGregor. It would take Mayweather too long to learn those things. His lack of power will never change.

”As of right now, we got to get past August 26,” said Mayweather when asked by Jimmy Kimmel if he’ll fight McGregor in a rematch in the octagon in the UFC. “Once we get past August 26, then we can talk about other things,” said Mayweather in discussing a possible rematch against McGregor.

I think Mayweather will come back for at least 1 rematch with McGregor. Hopefully, the two fighters don’t face each other 3 times. It would be forlorn at that point in seeing Mayweather and McGregor still fighting beyond 2017.

The McGregor fight might need to bring in 5 million buys on Showtime PPV for Mayweather to make $350 million. We don’t have any clue what the fight will bring in. It might only do 2 million buys or less. Mayweather will end up with far less than $350M if the fight only does 2 million buys. With all the boxing and MMA fans that will be pirating the fight on the internet, it’s probably a pipe dream on Mayweather’s part to count on him being able to make $350 million buys. Don’t get me wrong. Mayweather is going to make a ton of money for the McGregor fight, but I think it will be well short of $350 million. That’ll require an enormous amount of PPV buys from the consumers.

The Mayweather vs. McGregor fight is perceived as a circus event between a guy that has never laced up a pair of gloves before in a professional fight facing a retired former world champion boxer, who is coming back from a 2-year retirement to collect a paycheck. The fans know what this fight is all about. They’re not stupid. Even the casual fans are aware that McGregor has zero chance of winning. If these same fans still want to see the fight badly enough on August 26 to pay the inflated $100 asking price to order the Mayweather-McGregor fight on Showtime PPV, then it might do well. I doubt it though. My prediction is Mayweather will make less than half of the $350 million than he’s expecting to get for the fight. You can’t blame Mayweather for dreaming though. I just don’t think his dream is going to come true.

“If the paycheck is there, we’re going to make it happen,” said Mayweather. “$350 million,” said Mayweather in bragging about what he THINKS he’ll be making in the McGregor fight.