McGregor vs. Mayweather negotiations begin

On May 6, 2016 a report surfaced in Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun that then UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr, the greatest boxer of his generation, were about to announce they’d be boxing in Vegas. The source of the story of Mayweather’s team.

Since then the pair have bickered back and forth in fits and starts. Most recently Mayweather revealed his price.

“My number was a guaranteed $100 million, that was my number,” said Mayweather. “We’re the A-side. … We are willing to give him $15 million, and then we can talk about splitting the percentage, the back-end percentage on pay-per-view.

The missing piece throughout has been UFC president Dana White. McGregor’s contract prohibits prize fighting, so has to be approved, or not, by White. White has said repeatedly, “Floyd, call me.”

Now during a recent appearance on The Herd, White began the negotiation.

I’ll tell you what, Floyd, said White as transcribed by Steven Marrocco for MMAjunkie. Here’s a real offer, and I’m the guy that can actually make the offer, and I’m actually making a real offer. We’ll pay you $25 million, we’ll pay Conor $25 million, and then we’ll talk about pay-per-view at a certain number. There’s a real offer.

To think that you’re the ‘A’ side? How are you the ‘A’ side? The last major fight that you were in, you left such a bad taste in everybody’s mouth, nobody wants to see you again. His last fight did 350,000 pay-per-view buys. Conor’s last, Conor did 1.3 and 1.5 million buys, so I don’t understand you think you’re the ‘A’ side. There’s a reason you want this Conor fight so bad, because you know that’s your money fight.

If they’re going to box, Floyd looks at this thing like an easy boxing match for him, but Conor McGregor is his money fight.

He’s claiming he’s made offers. He hasn’t made offers to anybody. Floyd Mayweather hasn’t made an offer to anybody. I just made a real offer.

Floyd’s 49-0, and money means a lot to him, but his record means a lot to him. It would be devastating to Floyd if Conor beat him in a boxing match. But at the end of the day … when you’re chartering planes for your luggage, you burn through money pretty quick. Don’t think that Floyd doesn’t need money, because Floyd loves to burn it.

We like making fights that people are interested in. We like putting on entertainment events, whatever. As long as the people who buy the pay-per-view or bought the tickets are excited with what happened that night, how do you lose? In my opinion, do I think Conor McGregor would be the best fight you’ve ever seen? Probably not, but it would be pretty damn exciting. But, I’m going to build an entire card underneath it, so you’re guaranteed to at least get your money’s worth, unlike the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight.

White expects the PPV to break 2.3 and 2.5 million pay-per-view buys. And if Mayweather doesn’t bite, plenty of fighters will.

I’m going to tell you why Conor is still doing over 1 million pay-per-view buys and Floyd isn’t, said White. Conor McGregor will fight anybody, anywhere, anytime, including Floyd Mayweather. He absolutely is that guy.

Whether Conor fights Floyd or he doesn’t, there’s a line of guys, that are ready to fight Conor that Conor will fight, that are going to do over 1 million pay-per-view buys.

Mayweather was not impressed with the opening offer, and responded with pointed language in an interview with TMZ Sports.

So it’s begun.