https://youtu.be/SoXa3nAqtY4
During a recent episode of his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan addressed the rumors regarding a potential boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor.
“I don’t think [McGregor can fight Mayweather]. I would imagine, unless the UFC is involved, [or they let him out of his contract] and I can’t imagine they would be willing to do that and I can’t imagine that they would let him fight Floyd Mayweather,” said Rogan.
Rogan would elaborate, explaining why anything is possible and reminding fans that money talks.
“If enough money gets thrown the UFC’s direction, the UFC might look at it this way, here’s a pragmatic way to look at it: ‘We can still make a lot of money with Conor McGregor. We can still make a lot of money with Conor McGregor in an MMA fight. We can still make a lot of money if Conor rematches Nate Diaz’ which I hear they’re trying to make happen as well, that’s what the rumor’s been. But is he gonna beat the best guys in the world now? After Nate Diaz boxed him up and choked him out, is that going to happen again? If that does happen again, how much will that deflate his value on the open market? If you’re playing a game of chess, not looking at it in terms of a guy’s career as an MMA fighter but looking at it as a game of financial chess, how do you move your piece?
“You might say, look the amount of money that you can make with the Mayweather fight is off the charts. Off the charts. You’re talking about a three million PPV buy or something crazy. So you do that, you move that up, you take that chance, and he gets boxed up by Mayweather and maybe he survives. If he survives and loses a fucking decision and he goes back and he says ‘All respect to Mayweather. Back to MMA. I just didn’t understand his hands. It’s a learning experience.’ and he has this great press conference. If he can survive, he’s not diminished too much. And Mayweather’s not a murderous puncher. He’s not a Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin. Golovkin is a bad fight for him. Someone like that is a bad fight for him, a murderous puncher, because most likely they’re gonna take him out. But Mayweather, it’s very possible he is gonna get to the decision.”
As far as the fight itself is concerned, while it’s doubtful it will happen, if it does, Rogan seems pretty confident in his pick.
“If Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight in MMA, Conor McGregor will f*ck him up. He will f*ck him up…But, in a boxing match, I can’t imagine a world where Floyd Mayweather doesn’t f*ck [McGregor] up. In a boxing match I think Floyd Mayweather is arguably the greatest boxer of all time…He’s just so much better. And if people don’t know, if you think you’re really good and then you get in there and box a guy like that, he will f*cking expose the sh*t out of you.
“But I mean, who knows man? One of the things we know about Conor is he has a ridiculous belief in himself and he has unbelievable power. One of the things we know about Floyd is he’s 39. So when a guy turns 39, you never know. For every guy like Bernard Hopkins, there’s a bunch of guys where the wheels just fall off and all of a sudden they can’t take a punch anymore and they can’t fight anymore, they don’t move good anymore. But I can’t imagine a world where he’s not light years past Conor with boxing skill. ”
You can watch Joe Rogan talk about a potential McGregor-Mayweather bout via the embedded player above. The discussion about McGregor vs. Mayweather begins at approximately the 2:02:22 mark of the video.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Joe Rogan quotes.