Morning Report: Mayweather CEO responds to Conor McGregor wanting rematch: ‘He’s always welcome to that ass-whooping’

MMAfighthing.com

Here we go again.

Last week, Conor McGregor sat down for an interview with Tony Robbins where he discussed his recent losses, including the Floyd Mayweather fight. To the surprise of no one, McGregor said he wasn’t beaten by Floyd so much as outwitted, but that should a rematch occur, he would be better prepared this time and win.

“I was whooping him in the early rounds,” McGregor said (transcript via MMAWeekly). “I actually went back to my corner after the first round and said ‘this is easy’. I literally said that to my corner man, this is easy and then he had to switch up his style.

“Now you’ve got to respect that. That’s what a crafty veteran can do. He can switch his style. He switched it to that old Mexican boxing style. . . He never fought like that in his entire career. He was forced to fight that way cause he was getting beaten when he was fighting his old way.

“The approach caught me off guard. I was not prepared for it. I was not used to it and he walked me down and ended up getting the stoppage. The referee I felt could have let it go, I would have liked to see the end of the round, get my breathing back, get a little more comfortable.”

“I believe I would win [in a rematch],” concluded McGregor. “Actually, there I go again with the fake humbleness — I know I would win.”

While McGregor certainly did have more success than most anticipated, to say he was winning would be a stretch. Mayweather quickly took control of their bout and ended up stopping McGregor in the 10th round, his first stoppage win in six years. But Floyd and his team have never needed much incentive to make money, and with the prospect of a lucrative rematch on the table, Mayweather CEO Leonard Ellerbe responded to McGregor’s comments, saying his boss would be more than happy to give Conor another chance.

“That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that but Conor McGregor knows he’s always welcome to that ass-whooping,” Ellerbe told TMZ Sports. “I have the utmost respect for Conor, Dana, and those guys. If Conor McGregor wants some of that smoke again, he knows what he’s got to do.”

Of course Mayweather would; their fight was the second biggest pay-per-view of all time and earned Mayweather a reported $300 million. Though a rematch wouldn’t likely draw the same kind of interest, it still figures to be among the most lucrative possible fights for Mayweather, and this is exactly how the wheels started turning for their first fight. And as with the first fight, the only thing that would prevent it from happening is Dana White.

“He knows what he’s got to do,” Ellerbe continued. “All he’s got to do is call Dana. That’s all he has to do. I can’t speak for Floyd but I’ll tell you what, Conor McGregor, if he wants that ass-whooping again, I’m sure Floyd would oblige to that.”

Considering how well the first one did for the UFC financially, there’s a real chance this ends up happening. And with Dana White still adamant that Zuffa boxing is about to jump into the boxing game, perhaps this is the first fight they make a splash with.