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More MMA fighters are calling for a better payday boxing fight.
Jorge Masvidal wants to box Canelo Alvarez. T.J. Dillashaw wants to fight Floyd Mayweather. Stipe Miocic wants to fight Tyson Fury. Mayweather recently announced that he’s coming out of retirement — likely against a UFC fighter — and it seems like every MMA fighter has been trying to call for a cross-over match up these days.
The latest involves more heavyweights, with former UFC champ and current Bellator star Quinton “Rampage” Jackson still calling for a switch to boxing. He says he’d fight anyone… except Deontay Wilder.
“I still want to fight a boxing match before I retire,” Jackson told TMZ Sports (HT: MMAMania). “I’ll fight anybody but Deontay Wilder.
“He’s too tall. Unless they give me like $100 (million), then I’d fight him,” he continued. “I’m keeping it real. I don’t like to fight tall guys with a long reach. I’ll tell you what. I’ll fight him if they give me $100 mil and we do me one boxing match and one MMA match, then I’ll fight him. $100 mil. I’m keeping it real. I don’t like fighting them long, tall dudes.”
Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos also called out Tyson Fury for bouts in both MMA and boxing.
“It would be perfect to fight Tyson Fury in MMA, as he wishes,” Dos Santos told MMA Fighting. “And then, with a win over him, fight him in boxing, in his world. He would come to my world and then I would go to his world. It would be the pinnacle, a great moment for both sports.
“I don’t think he comes (full time) to MMA, but I think he’ll fight once. It would be very interesting.
“I’ve challenged (Anthony) Joshua in the past, and so did (Stipe) Miocic, and he played like he wasn’t listening. They stay in a safer place acting like they are better than MMA fighters, but that’s not the truth. The truth is, we’re more complete fighters and we can give them a hard night, even in their own sport.”
While it doesn’t seem likely that these MMA fighters would stop calling out boxers anytime soon, the trend is pretty telling. Countless established MMA stars are so willing to risk it all by fighting boxers under their ruleset. Why? Because even if they’d be at a massive disadvantage, a cross-over would still mean a far better payday than what they’ve been getting in their own sport.