Up until now a much-talked about money-spinning boxing match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr has seemed extremely unlikely due to the fact that ‘The Notorious’ is still under contract with the UFC, but Dana White has just set the cat among the pigeons by showing a concrete interest in putting the fight together in the Octagon.
White’s revelation came just days after Mayweather told ESPN that he’d be willing to pay McGregor $15 million plus a slice of the PPV revenue to fight him, while he himself would bank a guaranteed $100 million for what would undoubtedly be one of the biggest fights in the history of combat sports.
Responding via ‘The Herd’ show on FOX Sports 1 yesterday, White pointed out that any deal would have to go through him, before publicly discussing numbers for the first time.
“I’ll tell you what Floyd, here’s a real offer,” White said. “I’m the only guy that can actually make the offer and I’m actually making a real offer: We’ll pay you $25 million, we’ll pay Conor $25 million and then we’ll talk about pay-per-view at a certain number. There’s a real offer.”
Considering the fact that McGregor only received a guaranteed $3.5 million for his last fight at UFC 205 in November (in addition to many millions more thanks to a cut of the PPV), that’s an enormous offer, but it’s not such a big deal for Mayweather, who took home $32 million guaranteed for his last fight with Andre Berto, and hundreds of millions in total for his ‘Fight Of The Century’ with Manny Pacquiao before that.
That being said, White was eager to point out that though Mayweather’s fight with Pacquiao was the biggest ever with a staggering 4.4 million PPV buys, ‘Money’s’ last fight with Berto bombed.
“To think you’re the ‘A’ side? How are you the ‘A’ side?” said of Mayweather’s belief that he should command the bigger payday. “The last major fight that you were in [against Pacquiao], you left such a bad taste in everybody’s mouth that nobody wants to see you again.
“His last fight did 350,000 pay-per-view buys. Conor did 1.3 million and 1.5 million buys. So, I don’t understand how you think you’re the ‘A’ side. There’s a reason you want this Conor McGregor fight so bad, because you know that’s your money fight.”
It’s no surprise to hear that Mayweather’s reaction to White’s offer was simply, “He’s a f*ckin’ comedian,” when TMZ asked him about it.
White would have expected no less, but it was a smart move nonetheless. Talk of a McGregor Vs Mayweather fight just isn’t going away, so it makes sense that the UFC should insert themselves into the narrative as it’s going to generate a lot of media attention and free publicity.
The chances of actually getting a deal done remain as remote possibility though as there’s just too many obstacles to overcome, as not only do the two fighters have to agree to a deal, but also the UFC and Mayweather Promotions would have to see eye-to-eye on the promotional side of the equation.
As White has pointed out in the past, it took years for Mayweather and Pacquiao to finally come to terms, and there’s potentially even more red-tape in the way when it comes to this new mega-fight.
