Tag: Floyd Mayweather

Dana White Reacts To De La Hoya Blasting McGregor vs. Mayweather

Last week Oscar De La Hoya wrote a lengthy letter explaining why he is against the idea of allowing a superfight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor inside a boxing ring. De La Hoya feels that Mayweather’s highly-anticipated bout with Manny Pacquiao, which turned out to be a 12 round snooze […]

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Last week Oscar De La Hoya wrote a lengthy letter explaining why he is against the idea of allowing a superfight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor inside a boxing ring.

De La Hoya feels that Mayweather’s highly-anticipated bout with Manny Pacquiao, which turned out to be a 12 round snooze fest, dug boxing into a deep hole. He feels that a bout between McGregor and Mayweather would bury it even deeper.

McGregor vs. Mayweather is only one of two of the most highly-anticipated boxing fights of the year, as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is set to go down on September 16th – a fight De La Hoya himself is set to promote. The September date was originally the target date for the McGregor vs. Mayweather fight, per UFC President Dana White.

White took to Twitter earlier today (Wed. May 31, 2017) to comment on De La Hoya’s comments regarding McGregor vs. Mayweather, sharing a video that showed De La Hoya singing a different tune when the possibility of Conor McGregor fighting Canelo Alvarez was brought up (quotes via FOX Sports):

“To me, it will be a disrespect for boxing if a UFC fighter who has zero experience in boxing came and fought Floyd Mayweather,” De La Hoya said in the video posted by White on Twitter.

“Imagine Conor McGregor and Golden Boy [Promotions] coming together. The only fight that I would love to see and it’s the one that makes the most sense, that would be the most exciting, that would be a guaranteed knockout is against “Canelo” Alvarez,” De La Hoya said.

Although McGregor vs. Mayweather has been highly criticized by boxing purists, the anticipation for the event greatly outweighs the hate, and the bout is expected to be the biggest combat sporting event of all time. When two of the biggest cash cows in the history of fighting go head-to-head, a ton of cash is certain to be drawn towards “Money” and “The Notorious One’s” way.

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Dana White Rips Oscar De La Hoya After Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather Comments

UFC President Dana White had harsh words for boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya after De La Hoya was critical of the proposed superfight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. 
In an interview with TMZ Sports, White called De La Hoya “two-faced”…

UFC President Dana White had harsh words for boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya after De La Hoya was critical of the proposed superfight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. 

In an interview with TMZ Sports, White called De La Hoya “two-faced” for previously endorsing a McGregor-Mayweather fight and then reversing his stance more recently. (Warning: video contains NSFW language):

White also called out De La Hoya’s reversal on Twitter:

In a Facebook post from May 25, De La Hoya argued why a McGregor-Mayweather fight would potentially offer little benefit to the sport of boxing.

“Floyd’s and Conor’s motivation is clear. It’s money. In fact, they don’t even pretend it’s not,” he wrote. “But it’s also a lack of consequences for when the fight ends up being the disaster that is predicted. After this fight, neither of them will need us anymore. Floyd will go back to retirement—presumably for good this time with another nine-figure paycheck—and Conor will go back to the UFC.”

White wondered whether De La Hoya was going on the offensive since McGregor-Mayweather would likely come around the same time as Canelo Alvarez’s highly anticipated clash with Gennady Golovkin.

The two are set to fight Sept. 16. It’s the same month McGregor mentioned as a possible option for his bout with Mayweather. While Canelo-Golovkin and McGregor-Mayweather almost certainly wouldn’t happen the same weekend, fans may face a choice of only paying to watch one of the fights.

In that sense, De La Hoya, who has Canelo under the Golden Boy Promotions umbrella, would have a vested interest in attempting to downplay the significance of a cross-promotional battle between McGregor and Mayweather.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Flashback: Relive Conor McGregor’s First UFC Knockout

It’s no secret that UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is the biggest star in MMA these days. Even though he’s currently chasing his long-rumored boxing super fight with Floyd Mayweather, “The Notorious” has undoubtedly changed the face of MMA since debuting with the promotion. After all, the Irish megastar is the only UFC competitor to […]

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It’s no secret that UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is the biggest star in MMA these days. Even though he’s currently chasing his long-rumored boxing super fight with Floyd Mayweather, “The Notorious” has undoubtedly changed the face of MMA since debuting with the promotion.

After all, the Irish megastar is the only UFC competitor to hold two titles in two weight classes simultaneously, a feat he accomplished by dominating former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez via second-round TKO in the main event of last November’s UFC 205. McGregor has won nine of his 10 fights in the octagon, finishing his opponent in eight of those, with his only decision win coming against Nate Diaz in a record-setting rematch to avenge his only UFC loss at last August’s UFC 202.

Things are obviously beyond great for “The Notorious” right now, as he holds the balance of the MMA world in his hands. But it wasn’t always like that, however, as the former plumber was once on welfare and considering whether or not he should even continue his MMA career at one point. That all changed when he made what turned out to be a historic UFC debut at UFC on Fuel 9 against TUF veteran Marcus Brimage back in April 2013.

History – although it wasn’t known at the time – would be made when McGregor finished off Brimage with shocking ease, using his pinpoint power striking to send “The Bama Beast” packing only 1:07 into the first round. It would turn out to be one of if not the most pivotal debuts in MMA history. Relive his historic debut knockout here:

“The Notorious” would go on to face current UFC interim featherweight champion Max Holloway, who will face champion Jose Aldo in the main event of this weekend’s UFC 212 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in his next bout, winning a one-sided unanimous decision but tearing his ACL in the process.

When he returned almost a year later, history was about to made when McGregor reeled off consecutive KO wins over Diego Brandao, Dustin Poirier, and Dennis Siver to lock up a title shot versus then-champion Jose Aldo at July 2015’s UFC 189. Aldo was forced out with a rib injury following an exhausting 10-city world tour to promote the fight, but McGregor secured his first UFC belt nonetheless when he met former title challenger Chad Mendes on the massive card.

From there, McGregor finally faced rival Aldo at UFC 194, knocking out the dominant longtime champion with a jaw-dropping shot in 13 seconds. The win cemented his status as MMA’s biggest star (perhaps alongside then-women’s bantamweight queen Ronda Rousey), and he attempted to make more history when he was booked against former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in his next bout.

When “RDA” pulled out with a foot injury, even more history was made when McGregor faced late replacement Nate Diaz at March 2016’s UFC 196, losing his first UFC bout by submission in a massive upset. But the loss re-motivated McGregor to avenge the defeat, which he did at the aforementioned UFC 202 last summer.

The rest is history, they say, as McGregor stopped Alvarez to win his second title and now stands as the UFC’s most important star – even if his next fight will transpire in a boxing ring.

And it all started with his knockout of Brimage.

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Showtime Executive: Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor Targeted For Early Fall

It was revealed last week that UFC President Dana White had finally come to terms with UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor on an agreement to fight boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. Following McGregor’s side of the deal being finalized, White stated that he would now turn his attention to negotiations with Mayweather’s team in the hopes […]

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It was revealed last week that UFC President Dana White had finally come to terms with UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor on an agreement to fight boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. Following McGregor’s side of the deal being finalized, White stated that he would now turn his attention to negotiations with Mayweather’s team in the hopes of setting up the fight, which is being targeted for later this year. After the news had broke, Mayweather came out and stated that he looked forward to signing his end of the deal. However, he insisted that there’s “no rush” in getting the deal done. It appears that Mayweather may be changing his mind.

Executive Vice President of Showtime Sports Stephen Espinoza stated in a recent interview with FightHype (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting) that they would be willing to wait until next year if they had to. He also noted that both Showtime and Mayweather are targeting an early fall date for the proposed super fight.

“I think the date really is a function of how long it takes to get a deal done because the reality is, it took a long time for the UFC and Conor to reach an agreement to allow Conor to participate. Now the real negotiations start which is the Floyd side versus the Conor-UFC side. If that drags on then you’re probably looking at late this year. If it really drags on then you’re looking at early next year. But if people are as motivated as they seem to be – I know how badly Floyd wants it – if we get this wrapped up pretty quickly we could be seeing it early fall. That’s the goal. That’s what we’ve heard from Floyd. Now it’s just getting into a room and seeing if people will be reasonable on the kind of deal that they’re looking for.”

Espinoza stated in an interview last month that negotiations for the bout were “at a standstill.” This led to speculation that this was due to the UFC not being interested in facilitating the fight for fear of losing their biggest star permanently. With McGregor and White getting their end of the deal done, Espinoza appears to be more confident that the fight will happen. The biggest boxing fight of the last several years, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin, is booked for September 16th but Espinoza is not worried about the date, which was loosely being targeted for Mayweather-McGregor.

“I’m not sure it matters because we’re dealing with an event that’s massive. The only comparison that people can really make is Mayweather-Pacquiao, and you could have done that any day except Super Bowl sunday and it would’ve been massive. So I don’t think the date will make a difference commercially. . . The Mexican holiday has a been a date that Floyd really elevated, but it’s not a date that Floyd needs to make [the fight] bigger. That fight will make the date not the date making the fight. There are some fights where putting them on those dates makes it bigger and adds to it; this one is gonna be huge no matter what date it’s on so really, it’s a function of what works for Floyd in the business negotiation and his preparation.”

Despite Alvarez vs. Golovkin taking up the date real estate, Espinoza isn’t worried. The belief within the combat sports world is that the fight will do extremely well not only with live attendance but those who want to see the fight on PPV (pay-per-view). Some are even projecting it to draw five million buys on PPV, which is a massive number. Espinoza isn’t confident that the fight will do that well, but he does think that it could surpass Mayweather-Pacquiao, which is the current best selling PPV of all time.

“It’s tough to say that because even before Mayweather-Pacquiao my prediction was 3-3.5 million buys. I said after the fight that I wasn’t sure that we’d ever see some event in my lifetime to surpass it. Just because it was so big, I hesitate but at the same time, I have trouble thinking of a significant group of people who bought Mayweather-Pacquiao who would then say, ‘No, I’m not gonna buy Mayweather-McGregor,’ and since you are drawing from two distinct fan bases, it might give that record a run for the money.”

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Stephen Espinoza Wants Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather This Fall

If Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather throw down, the ideal timing for all parties involved would be early fall. The buzz surrounding a potential boxing match-up between McGregor and Mayweather hasn’t slowed down. After “Notorious” signed his end of the deal, the sports world has been waiting to see what “Money” does next. If Mayweather’s […]

If Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather throw down, the ideal timing for all parties involved would be early fall. The buzz surrounding a potential boxing match-up between McGregor and Mayweather hasn’t slowed down. After “Notorious” signed his end of the deal, the sports world has been waiting to see what “Money” does next. If Mayweather’s […]

Floyd Mayweather: ‘I Look Forward to Signing my End of The Deal’ to Fight Conor McGregor

If Floyd Mayweather signs on the dotted line, he will get his super fight with Conor McGregor. Late last week, McGregor signed his portion of the deal alongside Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White. Once the deal was signed, all eyes were on Mayweather, who was in attendance to see Gervonta Davis finish Liam […]

If Floyd Mayweather signs on the dotted line, he will get his super fight with Conor McGregor. Late last week, McGregor signed his portion of the deal alongside Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White. Once the deal was signed, all eyes were on Mayweather, who was in attendance to see Gervonta Davis finish Liam […]