UFC Lightweight Champion “The Notorious” Conor McGregor was on the butt end of a butt kicking four months ago when he stepped into the boxing ring to take on undefeated, multiple-time boxing champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather.
Still, Conor had one word to describe Mayweather, who recently shot down rumors that he was planning on fighting in mixed martial arts…
The rumors started yesterday when Joe Rogan announced on his podcast that Mayweather was in talks with UFC President Dana White about fighting in the UFC:
Dana told me that Floyd wants to make a deal in the UFC. Like legitimately. I texted him, I go ‘Is Floyd really talking about fighting MMA?’ He goes ‘Yeah, he’s f**king crazy. I told him he’d get killed. But he’s still talking about doing it.
That very same day, though, Floyd shot down the rumors, saying that his conversation was purely hypothetical.
Exactly what I said is this: if I could make over a billion dollars before, I could do it again. If I chose to get in the UFC and fight three fights or fight four fights and then fight Conor McGregor, I could make a billion dollars. Which I can. I could do it in three fights or even four fights — I could make a billion dollars. If I choose to get in the Octagon and fight.
As we’ve pointed out repeatedly before, this is a smart move on Floyd’s part. Not only is he forty years old — an age when most MMA fighters are seriously thinking about retirement, never mind beginning their careers — but he probably has little to no grappling experience.
If he were to take on someone like Conor McGregor, he would essentially be putting himself in the same position he was in when he fought McGregor back in August — only the positions would be reversed. Rather than being one of the top fighters in his sport going up against a complete newbie in the sport, Floyd would be the newbie going up against one of the best.
Conor certainly knows this. He also certainly knows that fighting Floyd would not only be an easy fight, but an easy million — or two! Plus, this would his chance to redeem himself for his loss to Mayweather back in August.
But McGregor also must know that nothing the UFC could offer would get Floyd in the cage. After all, Mayweather probably makes double, triple, or even quadruple what most of the top MMA fighters make. Despite the huge gains it has made in only about 30 years, mixed martial arts is a fraction the size of boxing.
For that reason, unlike his loss to Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor may just have to live with his loss to Floyd Mayweather.
Still, it was worth a shot to try to taunt him into the cage.
