Morning Report: Floyd Mayweather says he will apply for MMA license, might need six to eight months before debut

For the past couple of weeks, there have been rumors flying of Floyd Mayweather crossing over into MMA to rematch UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. Many wrote them off as nothing more than a way for Mayweather to keep his name in the news, until two weeks ago when Tyron Woodley announced that he would be helping Mayweather prepare for his octagon debut.

Then, over the weekend, odds were released for a potential MMA fight between Mayweather and McGregor, with the UFC lightweight champion coming in as the prohibitive favorite. So with the winds appear to be blowing towards an eventual foray into MMA for Mayweather, “Money” decided to fan those flames recently by revealing that he has begun to make preparations for such a possibility.

“Not yet but everything takes time,” Mayweather told TMZ Sports recently. “Eventually we’re gonna apply for the license and hopefully we can fight.

“I’ll probably need a little bit longer [than three months to train]. A Little bit longer, even if it takes six to eight months. Whatever it takes. We want to make sure that everything is done correctly and everything is done the right way.”

For those who followed the MayMac saga from its infancy as an internet rumor, those words from Mayweather will sound quite familiar. Back when a crossover boxing match between the two was first proposed, Mayweather was adamant it would happen but that the fight would take time to set up. Many believed it was just media hype, until the bout was actually made. Now Mayweather appears to be playing those same notes for an MMA fight, with the same outcome in mind.

All of this makes sense, as the MayMac event was the second largest Pay-Per-View in history, selling well over 4 million PPV buys and garnering Mayweather an estimated $300 million. A rematch in the cage could figure to do equally as well, and provides some serious incentive, according to the CEO of Mayweather promotions and Mayweather’s longtime friend, Leonard Ellerbe,

“Anything that Floyd Mayweather is involved in is gonna be record breaking,” Ellerbe told Kevin Iole recently. “Anything he does. He’s mastered all the business aspects of how to break records and he’s a genius, so if he decided to do something like that, those numbers would be ridiculous.”

While topping the numbers from MayMac would be difficult, MayMac II: The MMA Money Fight, would almost certainly be the highest drawing MMA PPV event of all time. And though all of this seems far-fetched, so did a boxing match between Mayweather and McGregor not that long ago, and as Ellerbe says, Mayweather might be incentivized enough to do it.

“One thing’s for sure, Floyd has always marched to his own beat,” said Ellerbe. “He makes his own decisions and he’s always been very good at making decisions as it relates to his career and what he wants to do. So I guess we’ll all find out.”