From the look of things, former welterweight champion, Floyd Mayweather who boasts of retiring before the age of 40 can’t stay retired as he has offered Conor McGregor the sum of $15 million to get him into the ring.
Mayweather on Wednesday indicated his interest in fighting the mixed martial arts star while speaking with ESPN’s First Take program.
Mayweaather who retired in 2015 further admitted that a fight with McGregor is the only thing that could get him into the ring once again.
He said: “Only thing I’m probably interested in is the Conor McGregor fight,
“I’m a businessman and it makes business sense. I believe in what me and (business adviser) Al Haymon talk about every day — I believe in working smarter, not harder.”
Opening up on what the McGregor sid think of his proposal, Mayweather said: “We tried to make the Conor McGregor fight. They know what my number is. My number is a guaranteed $100 million. That was my number.
“We are willing to give him $15 million and then we can talk about splitting the percentage — the back end — on the pay-per-view.
“But of course, we’re the ‘A side.’ How can a guy talk about making $20 or $30 million if he has never made $8 or $9 million in a fight?”
Mayweather appeared to suggest that McGregor’s recent comments calling for a fight were insincere.
“You guys keep hearing all these different rumors about different fighters want to face Floyd Mayweather.
“Everybody keeps talking about Conor McGregor. He’s blowing smoke up everybody’s ass. Dana White, the UFC — let’s make it happen. Bring him over to the boxing world and I’ll show him what it’s like.”
Recall that the fight had already been in talks since November when McGregor demanded a $100 million to fight the unbeaten boxer under mixed martial arts rules.
McGregor had in November said: “Much respect to Floyd. He’s a solid businessman… as far as real fighting — true, pure unarmed combat — Floyd don’t want none of this.
“He does not want none of this. He wants it under boxing rules. He wants a boxing match. He doesn’t want a fight.
“Give Floyd a shout, tell him I’m coming. Tell him to run around Showtime offices. I want $100 million to fight him under boxing rules because he’s afraid of a real fight.”