Dana White, the UFC President, is ready to pay 25 million dollars each to Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor to stage their proposed mega-fight. Both McGregor and Mayweather have talked about the possibility of a blockbuster clash in boxing and the most recognizable faces of MMA.
Now, Mayweather is retired from in-ring activities, but McGregor is still linked to an exclusive contract with the UFC. However, White hasn’t ruled out the chances of a fight. It would take place under boxing rules and regulations, shortly. He also said that they could reach an agreement if both parties sit down and talk about their pay-per-view splits.
White told Fox Sports One that this is a real offer for Floyd. He also said that he is the only guy who can actually make the offer, as a result of which, he is making the offer. He said that he’ll pay both of them 25 million dollars each and then talk about their pay-per-view at a certain number. He considers it to be a real offer.
From the looks of it, a payday like that would be the most lucrative in McGregor’s career. However, it might take a little more convincing for Mayweather. During his showdown with Manny Pacquiao, he got $100 million, and that fight was billed the richest one of all time. He also took home another 32 million dollars since it was his final professional fight which as the victory over Andre Berto later in the same year.
He believes that he is a bigger draw compared to McGregor. White also added whether he thinks he is the ‘A’ side and also wanted to know how he came to that conclusion. He mentioned that the last major fight he was in, he left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, as a result of which no one wants to see him again. He also revealed that Mayweather’s last fight did 350,000 pay per view purchases.
Compared to that, Conor’s two fights landed him 1.3 and 1.5 million buys. Therefore, he doesn’t think that Mayweather is in any way on the ‘A’ side. He also said that there is a reason Mayweather wants the Conor fight so bad and that’s because he knows that it is his money fight. If they box, Floyd will look at this thing like it is an easy fight but it will be a money fight for him and he knows it well.
Over the past week, there has been a lot of talk about the possibility of a Mayweather-McGregor fight. There have been talks of $50 million split equally between the two, Mayweather laughing at the amount of money thrown at him and then several jabs thrown through social media.
Meanwhile, Mayweather continued to ridicule White and McGregor for 25 million dollars he was offered to take the fight, especially when he is accustomed to a hell lot more, while actively competing as early as 2015. Mayweather talks about himself as the biggest pay-per-view draw in the history of boxing.
However, White reminded Mayweather that McGregor would be totally fine whether they have the fight or not. White told “The Herd” last week that there is a list of guys all lined up to fight McGregor and they would, in fact, love to fight him. He will fight all day long, and he can do more than a million pay-per-views.
White clearly meant that Conor doesn’t need Mayweather for anything. Mayweather gained superstar status after his 2007 fight with Oscar De La Hoya and also set all-time record pay-per-views of 4 million buys during his fight with Manny Pacquiao.