Conor McGregor On Floyd Mayweather Fight Rumors: ‘He needs me’

The MMA star addresses rumors of a fight with the boxer.

Steve Huff

May 22, 2016

We’ve gone into why a fight between MMA superstar Conor McGregor and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather will probably never happen—there are many reasons, but it has a great deal to do with McGregor remaining under contract with the UFC and Mayweather being unlikely to cross over into MMA. If a wide-ranging interview McGregor gave to ESPN is any indication, he’s still happy to jab at Mayweather, ridiculous rumor or not.

McGregor covered a lot of bases in the interview, including his dust-up with the UFC that torpedoed a quick rematch with Nate Diaz, who handed the Irish firebrand an unexpected defeat at UFC 196.

Then he got to the subject of Mayweather, and McGregor was completely on his trash-talking game, blaming the boxer in part for the rumors they might fight:

I hear [Mayweather] talking. The leak came out, it was him that leaked the rumor. I said, ‘He gets $100 million, I get $7 million. That’s a pay cut to me. I don’t take pay cuts. I thought boxing is where the money is at.’ The $7 million is absolutely laughable. He’s talking $100 million, I’m also talking $100 million. I’m 27 years of age and I’m just about halfway to a $100 million contract. At 27 years of age, Floyd Mayweather was on Oscar De La Hoya’s undercard. So, compare that. He needs me, I don’t need him. That’s the truth of it. Who else can he fight? He fights someone else in the boxing realm and all of a sudden the pay goes from $100 million to $15 million. So, he needs me. If he wants to talk, we can talk. But it’s me who is in control here.

Verbal sparring doesn’t cost McGregor or Mayweather anything. The unlikely prospect of them entering the ring or Octagon together just makes it so much noise.

Noise or not, we’ll take it for entertainment value. Until something real goes down, at least McGregor vs. Mayweather has already happened in the virtual world.

Watch McGregor’s full ESPN interview below.

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h/t ESPN