On May 6, 2016, a report surfaced in Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun that then UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr, the greatest boxer of his generation, were about to announce they’d be boxing in Vegas. The source of the story of Mayweather’s team.
The pair have bickered ever since. After a lull, Mayweather revealed his price, and conceded it was the one fight he wanted. UFC president Dana White offered the pair $25,000,000 each, plus a cut of the PPV. McGregor dismissed the offer and White dismissed the dismissal which was in turn dismissed.
There is zero evidence that McGregor would have a chance vs. Mayweather. This is Notorious boxing in the gym with former IBO and IBF welterweight boxing champion Chris Van Heerden.
“Mayweather wins, no doubt about it,” said Van Heerden afterward. “Mayweather is the best. TBE as they say. … Can Conor land a punch? Yes, he can. … But not on Floyd. Not on Floyd. … Not on Floyd.”
That doesn’t really matter though as both men are professional fighters and would make tens of millions. However, in a different take on the story, Kevin Iole argues for Yahoo Sports that a fight with Mayweather would likely be McGregor’s last, because it would price him out of any other fights. Iole estimates McGregor made $10,000,000 for his fight with Eddie Alvarez. But the well-connected Iole looks at the potential superfights for Notorious, and provides an estimate of potential buys.
•Vs. winner of fKhabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson on March 4 for the interim lightweight belt: around 1,000,000 PPV buys.
•Vs. Tyron Woodley in bid to become first UFC fighter to hold belts in three divisions: 1,500,000-1,750,000.
•Trilogy fight with Nate Diaz: 1,500,000 minimum
•Rematch with Jose Aldo: 1,000,000
•Superfight with GSP: 1,500,000 maybe more
However, a boxing match with Mayweather could do 3,000,000 buys on PPV, second only in history to Mayweather vs. Pacquiao which did 4,600,000. Iole argues that McGregor could make as much as $75,000,000 from boxing Mayweather, leaving him with little incentive to fight for UFC money.
“[I]f the fight ever happens, it would almost certainly price McGregor out of any future UFC fight,” argues Iole.
“WME/IMG’s $4 billion purchase of the company means that, in many ways, the UFC is now owned by banks. The UFC’s new ownership is heavily in debt and needs to pay off the loans. That’s a significant reason why large portions of the UFC staff have been laid off.
“So it makes little sense for the company to then pay a fighter so much money for one bout that it will guarantee a significant financial loss.”
McGregor wants the fight. Mayweather wants the fight. And White threw the biggest offer in his history by far, indicating – probably – the he, too, wants the fight. The biggest single problem appears to be that Mayweather doesn’t want to call White and work it out.
