With every day that passes it appears that we are getting closer to the superfight between undefeated boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. Over the weekend, McGregor made headlines after he walked out with Irish Olympic boxer Michael Conlan for his professional boxing debut at Madison Square Garden. McGregor, who
With every day that passes it appears that we are getting closer to the superfight between undefeated boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. Over the weekend, McGregor made headlines after he walked out with Irish Olympic boxer Michael Conlan for his professional boxing debut at Madison Square Garden. McGregor, who is no stranger to voicing his opinion, confronted members of the boxing media sitting ringside at the event and by stating that he would shock the world by knocking out Mayweather in a boxing match, promising that everyone would “eat their words.”
However, McGregor didn’t just stop there, and after blasting the media, the UFC champion spoke with The Los Angeles Times where he elaborated on his outburst and stated that the fight with Mayweather was close to done and that they were looking at September for a possible date. He also stated that Mayweather should be scared.
“[September] is what I’m thinking. That’s what the word is. That’s what we’re close to doing. I’ve tried to talk to Floyd. I flew to Las Vegas to have talks with Floyd, and then he retired. He just doesn’t want to see me. He’s petrified. Wouldn’t you be? No one knows what to expect with me, and they shouldn’t. Because I don’t know what to expect either.”
Mayweather recently unretired to pursue the bout with McGregor and suggested that the fight would take place in June, but many people believed that would be too soon for that fight to happen. Last week, UFC President Dana White said that he “doesn’t see how it doesn’t happen,” which is something that caught everyone’s attention as he has long be viewed as one of the biggest impediments to the fight’s potential booking. Now that White is on board with the fight and the fight slowly but surely coming together, it appears McGregor may actually get his opportunity to “shock the world,” something he says he’s ready for.
“I’m ready to box. I’ve been ready for a long time. The game’s going to be in shock when I step in the ring. Trust me on that.”
Conor McGregor escalated his war of words with Floyd Mayweather while making an appearance at Madison Square Garden on Friday during the Michael Conlan-Tim Ibarra boxing match.
“I’m going to stop Floyd,” McGregor said ringside, per Brian Cam…
ConorMcGregor escalated his war of words with Floyd Mayweather while making an appearance at Madison Square Garden on Friday during the Michael Conlan-Tim Ibarra boxing match.
“I’m going to stop Floyd,” McGregor said ringside, per Brian Campbell of CBS Sports. “You’re all going to f—ing eat your words. The whole world is going to eat their words.”
In a video taken by Fight Hub TV (warning: NSFW), McGregor says at the end he is boxing:
ESPN’s Dan Rafael also tweeted about an exchange he had with McGregor at MSG:
There hasn’t been an official agreement reached between McGregor and Mayweather, though it is being talked about more as a real possibility now than in the past.
In a video posted to FightHype on March 11, Mayweather announced he would come out of retirement only to fight McGregor and wanted to get something signed for this summer, per USA Today‘s Mike Coppinger:
I don’t want to hear no more excuses about the money, about the UFC. Sign the paper with the UFC so you can fight me in June. Simple and plain, let’s fight in June.
You’re the B side. I’m the A side. We’re not here to cry about money. I’m tired of all this crying about money and saying you want to fight. You’re blowing smoke up everyone’s ass, if you want to fight, sign the paperwork.
UFC president Dana White said earlier this week during an appearance on Conan he believes the fight will happen:
McGregor was issued a boxing license from the state of California last December, setting up the possibility for a match in Mayweather’s discipline if the two sides and UFC are able to reach agreement for the superfight.
McGregor is the UFC lightweight champion and became the first person to hold titles in two different weight classes at the same time when he defeated Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.
Mayweather hasn’t fought since defeating Andre Berto to run his record to 49-0 in September 2015. One more win would allow him to break a tie with Rocky Marciano and earn 50 career wins without a loss.
UFC president Dana White has offered his opinion on a potential showdown between the company’s lightweight champion Conor McGregor and legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., insisting he believes the bout will happen.
Speculation has gathered pace in re…
UFC president Dana White has offered his opinion on a potential showdown between the company’s lightweight champion Conor McGregor and legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., insisting he believes the bout will happen.
Speculation has gathered pace in recent weeks that a fantasy fight between the two combat sports stars could come to fruition. White, speaking on Conan (h/t Brett Okamoto of ESPN) on Wednesday, outlined some potential complications, although he expressed his belief the deal will get over the line.
“I do think it’s going to happen,” the UFC chief said. “I think it’s going to be a tough deal, because, obviously, there are a lot of egos involved in this deal and a lot of people, so that always makes it tougher. [But] on the flip side, there’s so much money involved; I just don’t see how it doesn’t happen.”
As Okamoto noted, White has previously been coy on the idea of McGregor’s taking on Mayweather, insisting in January it would be an “epic fail” for the Irishman to take part without the UFC’s go-ahead.
MMA journalist Luke Thomas outlined his opinion as to why the UFC may have changed its stance:
Speaking at a promotional event in Liverpool, England, last week (h/t the Observer via the Guardian), Mayweather confirmed he was coming out of retirement to take on McGregor. “Simple and plain, let’s fight in June,” he said.
Further fuel was added to the fire when a report from Duane Finley of FloCombat stated the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas had been booked for June 10 for a potential meeting of the two men.
Indeed, what seemed to be a previously fantastical prospect is beginning to look increasingly feasible. In the same interview, White even offered his insight into how he felt this potential clash of styles and skills would go.
“McGregor is huge,” he said. “He’s in the prime of his career. Floyd is 40. Floyd has always had problems with southpaws; Conor is a southpaw, and Conor hits hard. When he hits people, they go. Floyd is definitely not knocking him out. That’s for sure.”
White didn’t pick McGregor to win specifically, although he suggested the scrap would at least be “interesting.”
Mayweather’s last professional bout came against Andre Berto in September 2015, after which he walked away from boxing with a perfect 49-fight record and his reputation secured as one of the best of all time.
McGregor was last in action at UFC 205 in November 2016, when he stopped Eddie Alvarez to be crowned lightweight champion. In winning the bout, he became the first fighter in UFC history to hold two titles at the same time, although he has since been stripped of the featherweight strap.
The potential fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. still hasn’t been confirmed, but it has Dana White’s blessing.
The UFC president discussed the high-profile bout with TMZ Sports on Wednesday, saying it is still a possibility.
“It doe…
The potential fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. still hasn’t been confirmed, but it has Dana White‘s blessing.
The UFC president discussed the high-profile bout with TMZ Sports on Wednesday, saying it is still a possibility.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for my business,” White said. “But I would never keep Conor from making that kind of money.”
Per the Daily Mail‘s Jeff Powell, recent rumors suggested the superstars booked the T-Mobile Arena for June 10, but White said it “has nothing to do with us.”
Mayweather retired on top of the boxing world in 2015 with a 49-0 record, although the 40-year-old recently told FightHype he has come out of retirement for a bout against the Irishman:
McGregor is still active in the UFC and is the reigning lightweight champion, holding a 21-3 record in his career. While his experience has exclusively been in mixed martial arts, he is known for his punching ability and believes he could succeed as a boxer against one of the best ever.
The challenge has been finding common ground for the two to enter the ring. White offered the pair $25 million each plus a share of the pay-per-view profits, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports, although Mayweather laughed it off.
There seems to be enough momentum for a megafight to take place eventually; fans will just be left wondering when it will happen.
The UFC lightweight division has twisted itself into a tricky little knot to begin 2017.Now, the question is whether the fight company can pull the right strings to untangle it all before the most dependably great weight class in MMA begins to unravel….
The UFC lightweight division has twisted itself into a tricky little knot to begin 2017.
Now, the question is whether the fight company can pull the right strings to untangle it all before the most dependably great weight class in MMA begins to unravel.
Not since the UFC abruptly abandoned the 155-pound division in 2004 (only to pick it up again in 2006) have things been in such disarray.
Newly minted 155-pound champion Conor McGregor remains at odds with the organization on a return, so dead-set is he on boxing Floyd Mayweather. That far-fetched superfight continues to waffle between done deal and ain’t-no-way, depending on the day and which way the trade winds are blowing.
Last week, Mayweather announced he was “officially out of retirement for Conor McGregor,” in a video posted by FightHype.com. What that means, exactly, seems slippery at best, though at least the former five-division world champion appears to be feeling some urgency to make the fight.
“We don’t need to waste no time,” Mayweather said in the video. “We need to make this s–t happen quickly. Let’s get it on in June.”
On the MMA side of the aisle, folks continue to regard McGregor vs. Mayweather as an extreme long shot. As in, a stumble-into-a-forest-meadow-and-catch-Bigfoot-riding-a-unicorn type of long shot.
Somehow, though, the rumors haven’t dried up and blown away, despite McGregor’s exclusive contract with the UFC and Mayweather being a few weeks removed from turning 40 years old. Just about the only thing making the bout seem remotely possible is that the story itself refuses to die.
More painfully real is the growing acceptance among MMA fans that McGregor and the UFC might eternally be at each other’s throats.
The 28-year-old Dublin native has been a revelation since debuting in the Octagon in 2013. The sheer speed with which he went from complete unknown to the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draw was breathtaking. Now, with Ronda Rousey perhaps gone for good and new owners at WME-IMG desperate to increase profits, McGregor is more important than ever.
Naturally, he’s well aware of that, too.
Better than perhaps any athlete in UFC history, McGregor has leveraged his position into big paydays. It’s been refreshing to see a fighter finally gain the upper hand on the organization in negotiations, but if McGregor’s current extended paternity leave morphs into a full-on contract hold-out, it feels as though his antics might finally start to wear thin with fans.
People seem to be getting sick of seeing McGregor win UFC titles—he’s captured two since December 2015—and then never defend them.
Case in point: Competition in the featherweight division was hot and heavy while McGregor was in the mix, but things have slumped since the UFC stripped him of the title in November 2016. Jose Aldo was promoted from interim champ to undisputed champ, but he has yet to defend the belt.
Max Holloway became the new 145-pound interim champion by defeating an overweight Anthony Pettis at UFC 206. Now a title unification bout between Holloway and Aldo is finally expected at UFC 211 on June 3.
So, McGregor’s entrance and exit at featherweight caused no small amount of chaos.
Now the same thing is happening at lightweight.
The UFC’s efforts to prop up an interim champ at 155 pounds during McGregor’s absence fizzled earlier this month when Khabib Nurmagomedov was hospitalized the week of UFC 209 and a meeting against Tony Ferguson was canceled.
Nurmagomedov officially remains the division’s No. 1 contender, but his immediate future is in doubt after his weight snafu dealt a significant blow to that event’s PPV fortunes.
Even the normally bombastic UFC President Dana White was flummoxed.
“He’s going to have to take some time to recover from this weight cut,” White told reporters after Nurmagomedov’s removal, via MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn. “Then, I don’t know what to do.”
The feeling is mutual.
You ready for this? Because at this point it gets a little complicated.
Ferguson remains healthy and ready to fight, but Nurmagomedov’s absence leaves him without a clear-cut championship caliber opponent. It would be a shame to see Ferguson put his nine-fight win streak on the line against lesser competition, but that might be the reality for him now.
On the other hand, he told reporters the UFC paid him less than half his expected show money for the bout after he made weight and Nurmagomedov didn’t. If Ferguson’s accounting is accurate, that probably wasn’t the best way for the organization to endear itself to a guy it might need a favor from soon.
Meanwhile, former champ Eddie Alvarez—who lost the title to McGregor at UFC 205—just accepted a surprising booking against Dustin Poirier at UFC 211. That eliminates Alvarez from interim title consideration, at least in the short term.
Another former champ, Rafael dos Anjos, could make sense for the spot had he not just lost to Ferguson in November 2016. On top of that, dos Anjos recently announced his desire to decamp from lightweight entirely, in favor of a future at welterweight.
Dos Anjos cited his own difficult weight cuts as the reason for the move.
“It’s just too much for me,” he said, via MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz. “I already got the belt. And for [the money] I’m making now, it’s not worth it. One day, if there’s a superfight or something that gives me good money, I can make this sacrifice and go back to 155 again, but not now.”
All that means nearly the entire lightweight Top Five is indisposed at the moment.
The champion is out indefinitely. The No. 1 contender faces a murky future, and Ferguson (No. 2 on the UFC’s official rankings) is left without a clear direction.
As ever, the elephant in the room remains Nate Diaz.
Diaz is currently No. 8 in the 155-pound rankings, but he deserves to be ranked higher. He’s pretty much the only guy in the Top 15 with the recent resume and crossover appeal to give an interim title fight against Ferguson (or anybody else) the shimmer of legitimacy.
Unfortunately, Diaz is also perennially seemingly crosswise with UFC management over his pay. His last two fights were both at welterweight (against McGregor) and he hasn’t fought since a majority decision loss to the Irishman at UFC 202.
Matchmakers could pluck Diaz from the sidelines and inject him into a fight against Ferguson at any moment, but in the new cost-conscious UFC, it is perhaps unlikely that a financial arrangement to the liking of all parties is in the immediate offing.
So, what to do?
How to untie this cluster?
There is no easy answer.
The sad truth is that we will all most likely continue to wait on McGregor.
His next move could dictate a lot about the lightweight division’s future.
Fight fans and fighters have talked about the possible super fight between boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor for months now, and it seems that the fight will finally be made due to Mayweather announcing that he was officially out of retirement in order to pursue a boxing match with McGregor.
Fight fans and fighters have talked about the possible super fight between boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor for months now, and it seems that the fight will finally be made due to Mayweather announcing that he was officially out of retirement in order to pursue a boxing match with McGregor. He also tossed out a date for fight fans to get excited about, which was June.
It seems that after months of Mayweather not wanting this fight, he wants it more than anything now. There may be a reason for his desire for this fight with the current king of MMA, and one fighter has a theory behind it, but keep in mind that it’s pretty bold claim.
UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who is set to fight former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre later this year, recently stated on his The Countdown which he hosts alongside Luis J Gomez on Sirius XM that he heard from a trusted source that Mayweather had been conned out of a massive sum of money. Mayweather reportedly has a net worth of $400 million after earning in $700 million in his career earnings as pro-boxer. One would have to think that how can he spend all of that money but Bisping is dead set on his claims.
“I was talking to someone in Las Vegas, and I heard that Floyd recently got scammed out of a lot of money,” Bisping said (transcript courtesy of The Sun). “The number was very, very big. I don’t think Floyd needs the money, but he wants to replace this money that he got swindled out of.”
According to Bisping, he is sure that the super fight will happen as the offer would be a sum of money that he can’t turn down. Although he is sure that the fight will happen, he doesn’t know if it will take place in June as it might be a little too soon for it to happen.
“My bet is that the fight will happen. Will it happen in June? I don’t know, that might be a bit too soon.”
