The rumors regarding Floyd Mayweather Jr. making a run in MMA just keep on getting louder. The latest example? Longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan recounting some interesting conversations he had with UFC President Dana White on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience (warning, NSFW language).
“Floyd talked about it, apparently,” he said Tuesday. “This is one thing I can tell you, Dana told me that Floyd wants to make a deal in the UFC. Like legitimately. So I texted him ‘is Floyd really talking about fighting in MMA?’ And he goes ‘yeah, he’s f–king crazy, I told him he’d get killed but he’s still talking about doing it.'”
At face value, this wouldn’t raise much of an eyebrow as Rogan and White are known to embellish to almost comical degrees. That said, it comes at an interesting time for Mayweather.
Money, last seen in the boxing ring in August opposite UFC fighter Conor McGregor, has been teasing a return since October. But while there’s little doubt that Mayweather remains a major pay-per-view draw, there are few low-risk, high-reward options out there at this time.
Mayweather’s 2015 bout with Andre Berto reportedly tallied between 400,000 and 550,000 pay-per-view buys, the lowest since his rise to stardom in 2007, which casts doubt on whether a squash match would be worth his time. On the flipside, while matches with top boxing stars such as Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin or Vasyl Lomachenko might do strong numbers, Mayweather would likely open as an underdog against any of them.
A move to the UFC, and an MMA rematch with McGregor in particular, would leave his boxing legacy untarnished while also potentially offering him the largest paycheck available. That, of course, is what matters most to Mayweather, and that fact isn’t lost on him.
“You already know I’m a money-getting motherf–ker,” Mayweather said last week (h/t Ryan Harkness of MMAMania.com). “I’m Money May. They just called me not too long ago and asked me to come back … I can do a three or four-fight deal in the Octagon and make a billion dollars.”
That said, it’s far too early for fans to start planning a trip to Las Vegas for Mayweather vs. McGregor 2. While UFC ownership and The Money Team managed to come together for one match, it’s likely they won’t be able to do it again.
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