Though he has not yet put pen to paper and signed on for the fight, semi-retired superstar Floyd Mayweather is doing his utmost to sell his impending match-up with MMA star Conor McGregor (McGregor has signed on, Floyd is expected to do so soon).
The 40 year old all-time great was speaking on Eminem’s SiriusXM channel shade 45, and he praised McGregor’s stand up boxing and fighting skills. “Money” pointed out that McGregor – who he will fight under boxing rules (if the fight goes ahead, and it looks as though it will) – has never lost “standing up.”
“This is a boxing match, he’s a hell of a stand up fighter, I can’t take that away from him,” Mayweather said. “Only time McGregor has been defeated was when he was on the ground. When he was standing up, he always was victorious. He’s a power-puncher, a tough competitor, I’m a tough competitor, and we have to go out there and give the world and the fans what they want to see – excitement.”
Despite people not bowled over by the hype surrounding this fight seeing nothing but Mayweather going out there and boxing McGregor’s ears off all night, the bout is expected to make millions. Some, most notably Oscar De La Hoya, want “real” fans to boycott the bout, but it’s certain many millions will go ahead and tune in. Has McGregor got even a slim chance of beating Mayweather? Answer that question yourself.
Floyd says he will look at signing on for the fight as soon as he gets back home to Las Vegas.
“Once I get back to Las Vegas, to my hub, we’ll find out how everything plays out,” Mayweather stated. “I’ll communicate with Al [Haymon] and Leonard Ellerbe. We’ll sit down and see what we can come up with and hopefully the McGregor fight can be made.”
McGregor hopes so too, but do boxing fans? It would be far more interesting, exciting even, if Mayweather was planning to return for one more “real” fight. But time and again, Floyd has made it clear: only the McGregor fight, and it’s $100 million payday interests him. Wonder why!