John Kavanagh has said Conor McGregor was offered a $5m payday to fight three rounds against a Chinese kickboxer.
Conor McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh has revealed the Irishman was recently offered a huge $5 million payday to go three rounds with a Chinese kickboxer.
The bizarre idea comes just a few weeks after Floyd Mayweather, who defeated McGregor in a boxing match last year, announced he would be coming of retirement to face Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in a ‘special’ fight at Rizin 14.
Speaking on The True Geordie Podcast, Kavanagh discussed the offer and said that although he gets a lot of offers similar to this, he knew it was legitimate.
“I had a guy message me just a few days ago — a Chinese kickboxer [who] wanted to do three rounds with Conor for $5 million,” Kavanagh said “And he was going to put it in escrow. It wasn’t like he was just [joking]. Because again, I get a million messages like that a day, but you just don’t pay attention [to them]. But this guy was connected and it was a legitimate offer. But I know he wouldn’t [do it].” (Transcript via The Express)
It’s unlikely McGregor will be able to take the fight due to his current UFC contract, however the promotion did allow him to box Mayweather in August 2017, but the Irishman is also still in the midst of sorting out the trouble he found himself in after his brawl with Khabib Nurmagomedov after their UFC 229 fight last month.
“You get the odd funny message like that. And like I said, it was a genuine [offer],” Kavanagh continued. “I know the boxing promoter well and he’s very well known. So he wasn’t going to come with an offer that wasn’t legitimate.”