The greatest boxer of his generation, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is also the highest paid athlete in history. He made $32,000,000 in his last fight, vs. Andre Berto. But that amount was a fraction of what he wanted. The fight before that, vs Manny Pacquiao, made a more satisfying $220,000,000.
He doesn’t see any boxing matches that can make him over $100,000,000, so he is trying to set up a boxing match with UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor.
https://twitter.com/FloydMayweather/status/737112136371949569
McGregor wants to do it – talk of his purse began at $7,000,000 and quickly escalated. The loss to the UFC brand of Conor McGregor losing to FMJ is minimal; in fact, the publicity would further the UFC brand. McGregor’s contract with the UFC prohibits him from competing in other combat sports, but CBS reportedly wants to make the fight, and can make it worth the UFC’s while.
However, boxing dinosaur Bob Arum, 84, doesn’t like the sound of it.
“Would you put any money into a card that matches an extremely good professional boxer, if not the best, in Mayweather, fighting against a guy who has never had one professional boxing match?” asked Arum of Marcos Villegas? for Fight Hub TV. “It’s lunacy, it’s ridiculous. Even the commission allowing it is ridiculous.
“If they fought MMA, with the wrestling and the kicking and so forth, Floyd wouldn’t have a chance against McGregor. As a boxing match McGregor has no chance against Mayweather! Are you crazy?
“Here’s a guy who’s an experienced professional fighter, fighting a guy who’s had not one professional boxing match. McGregor couldn’t beat anybody in my gym. He’d go into the gym, pick any of those fighters, he couldn’t beat one of them. So where does he come to fight Floyd Mayweather?”
“It’s a farce. What shouldn’t happen is to denigrate the sport of boxing to a point where it becomes farce. And a Mayweather-McGregor fight is farce, either way.”
