There is no more speculation. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is coming out of retirement with the plan to fight UFC superstar Conor McGregor in the summer.
The 40-year-old boxing legend retired in 2015 after beating Andre Berto and improving to 49-0 as a professional, tying Rocky Marciano’s remarkable record. A bout with McGregor would afford Mayweather the opportunity to move to 50-0 whilst cashing in one more monster payday.
“Today, I’m officially out of retirement for Conor McGregor,” Mayweather said Saturday during a Q&A while on his current tour of the United Kingdom. “We don’t need to waste no time. We need to make this [expletive] happen quickly. Let’s get it on in June.”
The much-ballyhooed superfight has been speculated about for nearly two years after the two pugilists began taking verbal jabs at one another in interviews and on social media. More serious negotiations have taken place in recent months.
Both fighters are pay-per-view powerhouses so agreeing on the financial terms of the boxing matchup has been and will remain one of the biggest obstacles in getting a deal done. Then there’s the fact that McGregor is under contract with the UFC. If the mixed martial arts promotion can’t make truckloads of money off something like a Mayweather-McGregor showdown they’ll do anything in their power to prevent it from taking place.
Mayweather said in January he’d want a guaranteed $100 million to fight McGregor but would be willing to give the Irishman $15 million and the two would split the back end of the pay-per-view sales.
“When I faced Arturo Gatti, I went to his turf, he was the A-side, I was the B-side. I beat him, I didn’t cry, I didn’t complain,” Mayweather said Saturday. “When I faced Oscar De La Hoya, he was the A-side, I was the B-side. I didn’t cry, I didn’t complain, I beat him and I became the A-side.”
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Dana White has said McGregor’s next fight will be a lightweight title defence in the UFC, although in January he did make Mayweather a formal offer during an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.
“I’ll tell you what, Floyd. Here’s a real offer–and I’m the guy, I’m the guy who can make the offer–and I’m actually making a real offer,” White said. “We’ll pay you $25 million, we’ll pay Conor $25 million, and then we’ll talk pay-per-view at a certain number. There’s a real offer, okay?”
White has always opposed co-promotion, which is one of the reasons we never saw MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko compete in the UFC. However, with new UFC owners WME-IMG needing to accrue a tremendous amount of revenue in the near future to pay off debt attached to the $4.025-billion purchase of the UFC, they won’t outright dismiss allowing a potential cash cow like this fight to take place – even if it’s completely new territory.
“I don’t want to hear no more excuses about the money, about the UFC. Sign the paper with the UFC so you can fight me in June,” Mayweather added in his message to McGregor. “Simple and plain. Let’s fight in June. You’re the B-side, I’m the A-side. We’re not here to cry about money. I’m tired of all this crying about money and talking about you want to fight. You blowing smoke up everybody’s ass. If you want to fight, sign the paperwork, let’s do it.”
Mayweather has also gone on record saying he would want the fight to take place at either 147 pounds or 150 pounds and be part of a Showtime PPV package. McGregor, the UFC’s first and only simultaneous two-weight champion, hasn’t fought since knocking out Eddie Alvarez to win the lightweight title at UFC 205 in November. During his UFC career, McGregor has weighed in as low as 145 pounds when he competed at featherweight and as high at 168 pounds for his two welterweight bouts with Nate Diaz.
