Conor McGregor has been challenged by legendary boxing champion Floyd Mayweather to a fight, with the Irishman set to pocket at least $15m, before his pay-per-view share is counted!
Five-weight world champion Mayweather retired unbeaten in September 2015, but has revealed that the only thing that could tempt the 39-year-old out of retirement is a boxming match with McGregor.
“I’m a businessman and it makes business sense,” Mayweather said, while also revealing that talks had started with McGregor’s camp over the incredible deal.
McGregor is best known for MMA, but is allowed into a boxing ring as he had a boxing licence granted to him by the California State Athletic Commission, allowing him to box anywhere in the US.
He’s previously challenged Mayweather to fight under MMA rules, so it awaits to be seen whether he’s willing to stage the fight under Mayweather’s terms. Also, the question of money could be a problem. Despite the huge sum on offer, McGregor had previously said he wanted $100m to fight Mayweather in MMA, which is exactly the figure that Mayweather wants for himself for the boxing match.
“They know what my number is,” said the boxing champion. “My number is a guaranteed $100m. We are willing to give him $15m and then we can talk about splitting the percentage – the back end – on the pay-per-view.”
Aside from the money, the other potential problem is that Conor is under contract with the UFC, and any boxing match against Mayweather would have to be with the UFC’s blessing.