By Allan Fox: In response to being called out by UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov last Sunday, Floyd Mayweather Jr. took to social media to tell Showtime and the MGM Grand to get their checkbook out if they want to see him fight the 30-year-old MMA star in what presumably would be another novelty boxing match.
If the Mayweather-Nurmagomedov fight comes off, it would be Mayweather’s second involving a UFC star. In his previous fight last year, Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) defeated MMA star Conor McGregor (0-1) by a 10th round knockout on August 26, 2017 on Showtime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s going to be a tough sell for Mayweather to try and get boxing and MMA fans to pay to see him fight another wrestler in Nurmagomedov. The fans are hip to the fact that MMA fighters stand no chance against a top flight boxer, especially an all time great like Mayweather. It doesn’t matter that Mayweather is 41-years-old and nowhere near the fighter he used to be, he would still destroy a novice fighter stepping into the ring for the first time in a boxing match. Nurmagomedov is a good MMA fighter, but he’ll stand no chance whatsoever against Mayweather.
Nurmagomedov successfully defended his UFC lightweight title on October 6 in defeating inactive former champion Conor McGregor by a 4th round submission hold at UFC 229 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After the fight, Nurmagomedov climbed over the cage and attacked someone from the audience. While this was going on, McGregor was attacked by a person from the audience, who was able to climb into the ring due to the slow response by security. Before the person was stopped, he had punched McGregor twice with a bare hand.
CBS, Showtime and MGM Grand get the checkbook out!
Go to @leonardellerbe ‘s page to view Khabib Nurmagomedov challenging me.#CBS#SHOWTIME #MGMGRAND#MayweatherPromotions pic.twitter.com/6OtiDhtbNx— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) October 15, 2018
Mayweather vs. Nurmagomedov won’t likely be anywhere near the success as Mayweather-McGregor. Nurmagomedov isn’t well known by boxing fans, and he lacks the charisma to sell fights like McGregor. It won’t workout well if Mayweather is doing all the talking while Nurmagomedov struggles to speak English or needs an interpreter for him to be understood.
Here’s what Khabib said in his challenge to Mayweather:
“Hey let’s go Floyd, we have to fight now. 50-0 versus 27-0. Two guys who never lose. Let’s go. Why not? Because in the jungle only one king. Only one king. Of course I am the king. Because he [Mayweather] cannot drop McGregor, but I drop him easily. Let’s fight. Let’s go.”
Mayweather vs. McGregor was such a disappointing fight last year, it’s difficult to imagine any fans wanting to pay to see Floyd beat up on Khabib in a boxing match. Unless there’s a huge handicap for Khabib, hes going to be completely out of his league. Khabib would likely lose badly to McGregor in a boxing match. Those are the guys that should be fighting in the ring, not Mayweather.