PAIt’s been touted as one of the biggest super-fights in history and it looks like, after days of conflicting reports, the bout between UFC superstar Conor McGregor and retired boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr could be back on, after all.
On Friday, the Sun reported that the two fighters were on the verge of signing the contract for a bout in the boxing ring, but those reports were shot down by the Mirror and MMA Fighting‘s Ariel Helwani on Saturday.
However, ‘The Notorious’ McGregor himself may have just confirmed the £1bn ‘Fight of the Century’ is on the horizon with yet another cryptic post on his Twitter account.
MMA Vs Boxing. pic.twitter.com/qgl8tKvT5s
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) May 8, 2016
McGregor fueled the rumours of the historic cross-discipline clash with a post of a doctored fight poster on his account featuring the two fighters, above the words ‘Mayweather McGregor’ and the caption ‘MMA Vs Boxing.’
According to the Mirror, Conor’s latest Twitter post sending the Internet and fight world into meltdown, comes shortly after Mayweather’s dad insisted that negotiations to stage the fight were underway, despite a source in McGregor’s camp yesterday denying that talks were ongoing.
Mayweather Snr reportedly said:
I’m very sure he’ll [Floyd] be fighting when it’s time. He told me he was going to take another fight against some MMA fighter. We don’t care about that man. We’ll beat the hell out of that man. I haven’t seen the guy but all I got to do is take a good look at him and I can tell you my son can whoop him. He’s dead. He’s a dead man. I thought that’s what they’re going to do. I don’t know when it’s going to come round but it will be pretty soon. It won’t be that long.
GettyMcGregor would apparently be willing to lose 25lbs to make the fight happen and, according to the most recent reports, he would take home a tasty £7m of the purse, with Mayweather picking up a mind boggling £100m.
The bout still seems rather unlikely given the nature of McGregor’s UFC contract, and he appears likely to take a fight with Nate Diaz next at either UFC 201 or 202 (following the UFC 200 debacle), and then defend his featherweight championship against the winner of Frankie Edgar vs José Aldo later this year.
Of course, McGregor has made no secret of his desire to face Mayweather in the past and this may well be yet another ploy by the Irishman to drum up support in the potential bout. But those Mayweather Snr comments sure do add fuel to the fire. Watch this space, we guess!
