The McGregor-Mayweather saga continues and this time, after Mayweather last week stated he wanted $100 million to face the UFC featherweight champ, it’s Conor McGregor speaking out.
“I hear the boy talking,” McGregor said on SportsCenter. “The leak came out and it was him that leaked the rumor. It said he gets 100 million (dollars) and I get seven million… that’s a pay-cut to me. I don’t take pay-cuts. I thought boxing was where the money was at. The seven 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 through a $100 million contract. At 27 years of age, Floyd Mayweather was on Oscar de la Hoya’s undercard, so compare that.”
39-year-old Mayweather – undefeated in his pro boxing career and widely considered to be one of the greatest ever to compete in the sport – retired from competition last year following his 49th professional win. McGregor, meanwhile, is currently the biggest pay-per-view draw in the sport of MMA. He was expected to headline this July’s UFC 200 card in a rematch with Nate Diaz, but was pulled from the event after refusing to comply with his press obligations.
But recent struggles with his UFC superiors aside, McGregor still feels his career is in excellent standing with or without a superfight against Floyd.
“He needs me, I don’t need him – that’s the truth of it,” said the Irishman. “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. He needs me, so if he wants to talk we can talk. But it’s me who’s in control here.”
When rumors of a potential McGregor-Mayweather contest kicked off, one of the biggest questions surrounding the talks was what kind of bout it would be – boxing, MMA or some other form of modified rules.
As far as McGregor is concerned, boxing would do just fine.
“I don’t really care about rules. He can make all the rules he wants,” McGregor said. “I know he would not want to fight in a mixed martial arts contest, in a true fight. If he wants to fight in a limited fight, that’s no problem. We can do that. I will set aside many other forms of fighting that I practice in and I will focus on one particular craft.”
“I’m in the game of spinning plates,” he added. “I’m spinning a boxing plate, I’m spinning a taekwondo plate, I’m spinning a jiu-jitsu plate, I’m spinning a freestyle wrestling plate, a karate plate. There’s so many spinning plates in this game. If I was to just put all them down and have one boxing plate spinning, it would be like a load off my shoulders.”
