Chatter for Potential McGregor/Mayweather Boxing Match Has Been Growing

Published on January 15th, 2017 4:59 pm EST
Could a boxing match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather actually happen?

Over the past few weeks, the chatter revolving around a potential boxing match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather has been growing. Mayweather has been constantly commenting on a potential fight, while UFC President Dana White has also been talking about a potential fight between the two stars on various media stops.

Earlier this week, Dana White made a public offer to Mayweather - $25 million to you, $25 million to McGregor, as well as a split of the PPV revenues. Mayweather scoffed at the offer, claiming that he is the "A Side" in the fight and is deserving of $100 million guaranteed.

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The UFC's previous owners likely had a very limited amount of interest in this fight, though the new owners seem more open to the idea.

There is no doubt that a Mayweather/McGregor boxing match would do massive numbers - Dana White has said that he would be disappointed with anything less than 2.3 million buys.

The biggest issue will be money. Mayweather is used to getting his way, and it sounds like he won't take the fight unless he gets an outsized share of the purse.

Mayweather argues that he is deserving of more money because he has made much more money than McGregor in the past. The fact of the matter, though, is that McGregor is currently a much bigger star than Mayweather. In the end, Mayweather needs McGregor more than McGregor needs Mayweather.

McGregor's last two PPVs did an average of 1.4 million buys, while Mayweather's last PPV did roughly 350,000 buys. Sure, Mayweather has the Pacquiao fight on his resume, though many casual fans were turned off by that fight. It's not a surprise that Mayweather's last PPV drew so poorly.

At the end of the day, McGregor could fight someone off the street and still pull more than 1 million PPV buys. For Mayweather, McGregor is the only name that would be a "money fight" for him.

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Will this fight actually happen?

As mentioned, Mayweather is known for getting his way when it comes to negotiations.

The problem for Mayweather is that the UFC is used to getting their way as well. The UFC would likely not be amenable to doing a cross-promotion with TMT (Mayweather's promotional company), which would likely derail the negotiations.

McGregor, for his part, is currently sitting back and watching things play out. If Mayweather doesn't agree to a McGregor fight, the current Lightweight champion of the UFC will almost certainly be defending his Lightweight title against the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov/Tony Ferguson next.