Floyd Mayweather Jr. confirmed he’s willing to bring an end to his retirement if a deal can be struck to fight UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
On Saturday, MMA Fighting passed along comments the boxing superstar made to FightHype about his status:
For Conor McGregor, I’m coming out of retirement, just to fight Conor McGregor:
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 talking about you want to fight. You blowing smoke up everybody’s ass. If you want to fight, sign the paperwork, let’s do it.
Today, I’m officially out of retirement for Conor McGregor. We don’t need to waste no time. We need to make this s–t happen quickly. Let’s get it on in June.
Here’s the complete set of remarks from the 49-0 five-division world champion:
“Me and Floyd have got to get together and talk to figure it out, the same way him and Manny [Pacquiao] figured it out,” the Irishman said. “Once we come to a set number that I’m happy with and he’s happy with, then we go to the customers, then we go to the promoters, the buyers, then we get it done.”
McGregor added: “This is happening.”
The financial breakdown remains the biggest sticking point in negotiations.
Brian Campbell of ESPN.com previously provided remarks Mayweather made on First Take about demanding a guaranteed nine-figure payday.
“We tried to make the Conor McGregor fight,” Mayweather said in January. “They know what my number is. My number is a guaranteed $100 million. That was my number.”
Money also stated his camp offered The Notorious $15 million with the opportunity to negotiate how much each fighter would receive from the pay-per-view revenue.
A few days after those comments went public, UFC President Dana White put a different offer on the table during an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd:
BREAKING: @danawhite makes a REAL OFFER to @FloydMayweather for a fight vs. Conor McGregor:
$25 million for each and negotiate PPV split
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) January 13, 2017
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Mayweather would accept anything close to $25 million after originally demanding $100 million. That said, the uncertain level of interest from mainstream sports fans makes it tough to gauge how much PPV revenue the fight would generate.
All told, Mayweather and McGregor are both outstanding self-promoters. They know the hype helps them both stay in the spotlight, so the public war of words will likely continue. There’s still no sign a deal to fight each other is imminent, though.