By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he’s serious about wanting to fight UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but for the match to happen, he’s going to need to agree to fight him in the boxing ring because he’s the one that called him out. Mayweather points out the obvious that he’s the “A-side,” which means that Nurmagomedov, 30, will need to agree to fight him in the boxing ring for the fight to happen.
Mayweather, 41, says he’s going to make between $110 million to $200 million more than what he made in his last fight a year ago against former UFC star Conor McGregor on August 26, 2017. Making his pro debut inside the boxing ring, McGregor was stopped in the 10th round in a fight that looked more like a sparring match than a fight.
“What I said is, ‘CBS, Showtime, MGM Grand,’ get they checkbook ready, because you already know I’m Floyd Mayweather. I’m the check-cashing business,” Mayweather said to TMZ. “I’m about that money. Oh, we fighting. I mean, I’m my own boss so I can’t say what’s going on Khabib’s end, but on mine I’m ready. I seen on social media that he’d fight, but he said he don’t want to fight in Vegas. Of course, we know that Vegas is the fight capital, and after the fight, you have to conduct yourself like a true professional, not just in the ring but outside of the ring also. You must conduct yourself like a professional. It was a big maylay. From what I heard, it was a crazy maylay,” Mayweather said.
If Mayweather wants to make sure he doesn’t have any problems getting attacked after the fight by people from the crowd, he’s going to need to make sure that there’s plenty of security on hand for the Nurmagomedov fight just in case someone from the crowd gets a little froggish and leaps into the ring and starts throwing punches like we saw after the Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor fight at UFC 229 on October 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. But if Mayweather isn’t ready to deal with that kind of thing, then he needs to go in another direction to fight someone else.
Nurmagomedov is considered by many fans to have less stand up fighting ability than McGregor when it comes to using his hands. Nurmagomedov will be completely over-matched against Mayweather in a boxing match or against any top 15 contender. You can go so far as to say that Nurmagomedov would be out of his league against a bottom 100 ranked fighter in the boxing world. It takes too many years for a person to learn how to be a proficient boxer. You don’t just pick it up and learn the sport in an eight-week training camp and take on a boxing great like Mayweather. This is going to be another horrible mismatch like the Mayweather-McGregor fight was last year.
“Who is the A-side? He called me out, so he has to come to my world,” Mayweather said about Habib. “He said in an interview when he hit Conor McGregor, he knocked Conor McGregor down. He said I didn’t knock Conor McGregor down. Okay, Habib, you got my leftovers. Whoopee doo. I’m Floyd Mayweather, I’m the A-side. You called me out. You’re coming to my world,” Mayweather said.
What Nurmagomedov doesn’t realize is that boxing gloves have a lot more padding on them than the MMA gloves that are used in UFC competition. A good reason for why Mayweather wasn’t able to drop McGregor is because of the difference in the gloves that are worn in boxing compare to the light gloves that they use in the UFC. The other likely explanation for why Mayweather did’t knock McGregor down is because he appeared to be carrying him by fighting slowly, and not loading up on his shots. Mayweather could have flurried on McGregor in round one and likely forced a quick stoppage if he had wanted to. But if Mayweather had done that, the paying boxing fans would have been furious about the mismatch. The fans paid $100 to see Mayweather vs. McGregor on pay-per-view, thinking that the fight would be a competitive one with loads of action. Instead, the fans saw Mayweather plodding forward like an old fighter, throwing slow punches at McGregor’s chest and not looking like he wanted to take him out. It appeared to many people that Mayweather was taking it easy on McGregor so he wouldn’t anger the fans, which unfortunately didn’t work because the fans were angry afterwards. But as the saying goes, ‘there’s a sucker born every minute.’ The fans that didn’t learn from watching Mayweather’s last fight against an MMA fighter will spend their hard-earned money on seeing him fight another boxing novice Nurmagomedov, and the fans will be upset after they spend $100 to watch what will surely turn out to be a horrible mismatch. It’ll be interesting to see if the organizers of the Mayweather vs. Nurmagomedov fight will sell the fight for more than $100. Mayweather’s fights against McGregor and Manny Pacquiao both went for $100 on PPV, and both were dull affairs with little action to speak of. Entertaining, they were not. If Mayweather is going to make more money for the fight against Nurmagomedov than he did against McGregor, its probablly going to require that the PPV cost be increased frmo $100 to $110 to $120, because the buys are likely to be far less than the 4.4 million buys the Mayweather-McGregor fight pulled in. Nurmagomedov isn’t well-known in the boxing world, and his command of the English language and charisma isn’t at the level that McGregor had going for him. In facing McGregor, Mayweather was facing easily the best fight promoter during his career. Nurmagomedov is more of a quiet type, and not someone that is going to be able to drum up much excitement. It wouldn’t be surprising if Mayweather-Nurmagomedov brings in less than 1 million PPV buys. If that happens, hopefully that’ll show Mayweather that he needs to focus on fighting actual boxers instead of combing the UFC ranks to continue fighting their wrestlers.
“Once again, I don’t know no other fighters that has done the numbers that I’ve done,” Mayweather said. “I don’t know no other fighters that has made the money that I’ve made. So he called me out. He has to come to my world. Let’s make it happen. If I fight Khabib, of course, I’m getting a nine-figure payday. Yes, this is more than McGregor fight. Probably $100 million more guaranteed. It could be somewhere upwards. I’m going to say in between $110 million to $200 million,” Mayweather said.
If someone is going to guarantee Mayweather a payday of $200 million, then more power to him. I think it could be a mistake on their part to guarantee that kind of money for a fight between him and Khabib, because this is not nearly the same fight that we saw with Mayweather-McGregor. This is another business fight though, and not a true sporting event. It’s like taking a golfer and sticking him in the boxing ring with Mayweather, and then charging $100 for fans to see it on PPV. It’s a horrible joke fight. Khabib will make a ton of money, and it won’t matter that he’s clowned by Mayweather for as long as the fight lasts.
