FLOYD MAYWEATHER APPEARS to have given up hope of arranging a lucrative boxing bout with Conor McGregor.
Mayweather has seemed particularly keen in recent months on the possibility of facing the UFC featherweight champion in the ring, with such a match-up guaranteed to bring him another substantial pay-day and — more than likely — a straightforward victory to bring his professional record to 50-0.
Both fighters have expressed their interest in the fight, but when McGregor last addressed the issue — a week prior to his win against Nate Diaz in last month’s rematch at UFC 202 — the Dubliner left the ball in the court of the 39-year-old former world champion boxer, who retired 12 months ago after defeating Andre Berto.
“Right now I have Floyd running around the Showtime offices gathering my money,” said McGregor. “That’s what he’s doing. He’s running around the Showtime offices, begging for those executives to come up with $100 million cash for me to fight me. So as soon as he gets my money, we can fight.”
Referring to Mayweather’s preference for a boxing bout over an MMA fight, McGregor added: “If you want to fight me, we can fight. If you need a specific rule-set to protect you from a true fight, that’s no problem.
“Just make sure that money is there. As long as that money is there, then we can fight under your safety net of rules. But me, I don’t need rules. I am the fucking rules.”
However, speaking to FightHype.com over the weekend, Mayweather admitted that the likelihood of a fight which has seemed fanciful from the outset has diminished.
“I tried to make the fight happen between me and Conor McGregor. We weren’t able to make the fight happen so we must move on,” said Mayweather.
“It’s so crazy that when I talk about fighting Conor McGregor, now you’ve got so many other fighters that are in boxing who want to fight Conor McGregor. But I was the first, once again. I feel honoured to be the biggest name in MMA and in boxing, and I don’t even compete no more.”
McGregor is expected to return to action in the UFC before the end of the year, with a lightweight title bout against reigning champion Eddie Alvarez rumoured to be in the works to headline UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday, 12 November.
H/T: Bloody Elbow
