McGregor expected to agree to Mayweather fight within 24 hours
Dana White: “We’re right there. We’re just getting this deal done now with Conor.”
UFC 211 was a tremendous card, but at the post-fight press conference, the discussion returned, as it always does, to MayGregor. UFC president Dana White said he is conducting the negotiation in steps. First is McGregor’s camp, and that, White says, is nearly done.
We’re right there, said White, as transcribed by Gareth Davies for the UK’s Telegraph. We’re just getting this deal done now with Conor.”
The next step in negotiating with Floyd Mayweather’s advisor Al Haymon.
What do you think the Mayweather side is going to be like?” asked White. “How much time do you think I’m going to spend on this?
White was asked how much time it would take/
It depends how ridiculous it is, he replied.
Still, the biggest pay per view draw in mixed martial arts history vs. the biggest draw in boxing history, or any history, is worth pursuing hard.
You can assume the number of buys you’re going to do, but there’s no guarantee, said White. Every time you put on a pay-per-view, it’s a roll of the dice. You don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s some fights you do know, and this feels like one of those fights that should do [huge numbers], but you never know for sure.
White is playing a strong hand in the negotiation. He doesn’t need the fight, and Mayweather does. The boxer wants to break Rocky Marciano’s cursed 49-0 record. The person who breaks it gets a new cursed record, that might never, ever be broken. But boxers respect that curse, and Mayweather knows how many candles were on his last birthday cake. There are not a lot of big-selling boxing matches he is certain he can beat, even if there is a curse. In fact, there may be just one.
In good news for MMA fans, White said he expects McGregor to fight twice in 2017, once in a boxing match vs. Mayweather, and once in MMA. If McGregor makes the expected $75,000,000, his next fight will be for a small fraction of that, so the incentive will be history. History fights could be a trilogy with Nate Diaz or perhaps a catchweight with Georges St-Pierre.
White also stated that he reckons McGregor, who has just had a son with his partner Dee Devlin, wants to fight twice this year, which would include the anticipated bout with ‘Money’ Mayweather.