For UFC boss Dana White, it’s very much a case of, ‘been there, done that,’ when he looks at Floyd “Money” Mayweather’s recent calling out of UFC king Khabib Nurmagomedov (or was it the other way round, either way, Mayweather wants the fight and the enormous payday he feels he would pick up as a result). White, speaking with TMZ Sports, says that if Mayweather really wants the fight he should “come fight – a real fight.”
White says there will be no repeat of what happened when Conor McGregor stepped into the boxing ring to try his best to challenge the then 49-0 master.
“Listen, if Mayweather wants to fight, come fight. You fight in the UFC,” White said commandingly. “We’re not boxing again. We did that once, that’s over. You want to fight? You come fight – a real fight.”
Sounds fair enough, after all, Mayweather had things his own way last August (and McGregor has been calling for a rematch fought under UFC rules ever since). But don’t go thinking Mayweather, who turns 42 in February, would ever – ever – risk both his health and his unbeaten record as a fighter by agreeing to take a fight inside the cage. Not a chance. And even if Floyd did get pulled in by the $millions he would get his hands on and lost, sure the fight would not really count as far as Mayweather’s boxing record goes, but a loss is a loss – especially to someone with as enormous an ego as Floyd has. Bottom line: there is more chance of Donald Trump hosting a Miss World contest than there is of Floyd Mayweather fighting Khabib, or any formidable UFC fighter, inside the cage.
It seems then that this fight is a dead dodo; that White has put an end to it. Will any fight fans be overly upset if this indeed proves to be the case? Not really. Mayweather should, as White says, have a real fight if he wants to pick up another small fortune. Not in the cage, but in the ring. Mayweather could fight again and we’d get quite excited if he picked a genuinely risky foe: say a Canelo Alvarez in a return at middleweight.
If a Mayweather-Khabib fight is really dead, get ready to see that needless Mayweather-Pacquiao sequel next year instead. Unless of course Adrien Broner shocks Manny in January.