By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. was asked last Friday night by Showtime if he would be willing to face IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in a fight. Mayweather then went on a long rant about how great fighters in the past have always moved up in weight to fight bigger fighters, and how Golovkin hasn’t done that.
Mayweather then said he isn’t ducking Golovkin, even though everything he said would lead you to conclude that he’s absolutely ducking him. Instead of Mayweather saying whether he would accept the challenge of fighting Golovkin, Mayweather sidestepped the question by saying Golovkin should move up in weight.
The answer that Mayweather gave to Showtime was a clear example of him ducking the fight. Mayweather wants Golovkin, a small middleweight, to move up two entire divisions to fight a light heavyweight in Andre Ward.
If Golovkin made that move, he would be taking a pay cut from the money he could make facing Mayweather or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, because those two fights would be much bigger money fights than facing Ward, who IS NOT a pay-per-view fighter and likely never will be.
Mayweather says he wants to fight recently beaten UFC fighter Conor McGregor in a boxing match. Mayweather thinks he’ll get $100 million for the fight. I tend to doubt it. McGregor isn’t a boxer and he’s not well known with boxing fans. You have to be an MMA guy to know who McGregor is. I’ve personally never seen McGregor fight, and I think I’m not the only boxing person that hasn’t seen him fight. But all you need to know is that Mayweather wants to fight McGregor in a boxing match and that’s clearly not going to be a fair fight if the UFC allows it to take place.
Mayweather says that Golovkin is too big at 170, but McGregor weighs the same amount as Golovkin at 170. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez also weighs in the 170s, but he appears to be even heavier than Golovkin. Mayweather fought Canelo.
“Sugar Ray Leonard, he jumped up in weight. Roberto Duran jumped up in weight. Oscar De La Hoya jumped up in weight. Pernell Whitaker jumped up in weight. Roy Jones Jr. jumped up in weight. Floyd Mayweather jumped up in weight. So many legendary champions jumped up in weight. When is Triple G going to jump up in weight? I proved myself over and over again. I’m not ducking and dodging Triple G, but I’m a businessman. My focus right now if I was to get inside the ring compete, the only guy I’m thinking about right now business-wise is Conor McGregor,” said Mayweather.
When asked what are the odds of him making a comeback, Mayweather said “50-50.”
It would make sense for Golovkin to move up in weight if there were people for him to fight in the higher weights. There’s only Ward, Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson to fight at 175. That’s it. The rest of the guys are no names and not worth it for Golovkin to fight. The bigger money fights for Golovkin is at middleweight against Canelo, who Mayweather said he doesn’t want Golovkin to fight because he needs Canelo more than he needs Golovkin.
“It’s really not a rumor. The fight may happen. We really don’t know, as of right now,”
Mayweather said this about wanting to fight McGregor “But do I think the fight will happen? Absolutely. We’re the A-side of course. It has to be a boxing match, because most fights that Conor McGregor won inside the Octagon, he was a stand-up guy. So I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a tough fight for me. Hopefully we can make the fight happen. He’s no pushover. One thing about Conor McGregor, he’s no pushover. He fell short in his last bout, but a true champion can always bounce back. We haven’t picked a venue; we haven’t talked about money yet. I’m going to get $100 million, of course. Every time I get in the squared circle, it’s $100 million or better,” said Mayweather.
UFC president Dana White is reportedly cool to the idea of a fight between McGregor and Mayweather taking place. It obviously wouldn’t be a good move for the UFC to allow one of their biggest stars to fight a boxer like Mayweather in a boxing match because McGregor would clearly get beaten badly in a one-sided fight and then his value would likely drop after the loss. It would be like Ronda Rousey losing to former Woman’s boxing champion Holly Holm last November.