Mayweather wants $100M guaranteed for McGregor fight

BoxingNews24.com

By Allan Fox: It appears that Floyd Mayweather’s asking price for his fights hasn’t decreased despite him being out of the ring for almost a year and a half since his last fight, as he wants $100 million to fight UFC star Conor McGregor. Mayweather says he’ll give McGregor $15 million plus a percentage of the pay-per-view money, but he wants $100 million for himself just to take the fight.

McGregor seems to want similar money as Mayweather. This all just talk, of course, because McGregor’s bosses at the UFC haven’t shown even a hint of interest of letting their star fight Mayweather – any other boxer – inside a boxing ring. It would be a disaster for McGregor, and it wouldn’t help the UFC for their top star to be seen getting humbled inside the boxing ring by Mayweather or someone else from the sport.

If this was just a game of golf or tennis, then perhaps the UFC might consider letting McGregor compete. No, I don’t think they would. They might say no to that too. It wouldn’t look good for their star McGregor to be seen getting embarrassed on a golf course or tennis court competing in sports that he doesn’t have the background for.

“We tried to make the Conor McGregor fight,” Mayweather said to ESPN.com. “They know what my number is. My number is a guaranteed $100 million. That was my number. We are willing to give him $15 million and then we can talk about splitting the percentage — the back end — on the pay-per-view. But of course, we’re the ‘A side.’ How can a guy talk about making 20 or 30 million if he has never made 8 or 9 million in a fight.”

Mayweather has been out of boxing for a long time now, and I don’t think he’s going to get $100 million for a fight against McGregor, Manny Pacquiao, Saul Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin. Mayweather has been gone too long. I think the fans are starting to see Mayweather more in the role of a promoter than a fighter. He’s seen more as an ex-fighter. Once the boxing public sees a fighter as an ex-fighter, then I think the interest in them dies down. Even if Mayweather did come back to fight McGregor, it’s not a fight that would be taken seriously in my view. Mayweather isn’t active, and he’s about to turn 40.

For a lot of fans, I think they’d prefer to see McGregor fight a relevant fighter like Golovkin if he’s so eager to fight a boxer inside the ring. I think Golovkin would have a very good chance of beating McGregor inside the octagon in MMA, because the main asset that he has going for him is his standup game. McGregor won’t last more than 20 to 30 seconds against Golovkin unless he can take him down. If McGregor were to try and stand up and fight Golovkin, it’ll be over too quickly.

As far as Mayweather goes, he seems to be dreaming if he thinks he’s going to get $100 million for a fight against McGregor. Mayweather isn’t active. He’s just gone from the sport. Mayweather hasn’t taken on a serious challenger for almost two years now since his disappointing fight against Pacquiao in 2015. Two years is a lifetime in boxing. I think the fans have moved on already. Mayweather had his window for him to come back and resume his career, but I think that window is now closed. When you walk away from boxing for extended periods, you’re forgotten by a lot of fans.

Mayweather vs. McGregor might bring in a small amount of PPV buys, but not the huge numbers that some people think it will. The fans knows it’s a farce, and they won’t purchase it in high numbers. Mayweather’s asking price might need to come down quite a bit for him to get the fight if it were possible to make the match.