Dana White offers Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor $25 million each for fight
The world of combat sports seems to focus on super fights from time to time, and the bout that is en vogue at the moment is a crossover bout between undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather and two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor. It's unrealistic to expect the fighters from different sports to ever meet, given the plethora of logistical hurdles, but people can't stop talking about this one.
In response to Mayweather revealing he offered McGregor $15 million for a bout on ESPN's First Take, UFC president Dana White went on Fox Sport's The Herd to rebuke the claim.
"He hasn't talked to anybody about this fight," White said. "If you're talking to someone about the fight you're talking to me, I'm the promoter and Conor McGregor is under contract with me."
White took the speculation about a potential fight a step further, countering with an offer of his own.
"Here is a real offer, and I'm the guy, I'm the guy that can actually make an offer, and I'm actually making a real offer," White started. "We'll pay you $25 million. We'll pay Conor $25 million. Then we'll talk about pay-per-view at a certain number. There is a real offer."
Renowned MMA reporter Ariel Helwani reported before the segment that the potential bout had transitioned from hypothetical into an exploratory phase, citing a number of potential hurdles to overcome that White alluded to as well during the interview.
Mayweather also lauded himself as the "A-Side" in the bout, anointing himself the primary draw in this potential scrap. White disputed that claim as well, reminding listeners that Mayweather fans were jumping ship after his unentertaining showing against Manny Pacquiao.
"The last major fight you were in, you left such a bad taste in everybody's mouth that nobody wants to see it again," White said, directing his comments towards Mayweather. "His last fight did 350,000 pay-per-view buys. Conor's last fight did 1.3 million and 1.5 million pay-per-view buys.
"I don't see how you're the A-Side. And there is a reason you want this McGregor fight so bad, you know it's your money fight."
White added that he would be disappointed to see a Mayweather-McGregor bout do less than two million pay-per-view buys, but noted the upside could be numbers similar to the Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. From the UFC's side, White said he would stack the card similar to UFC 205 in Madison Square Garden to ensure no buyer's remorse from fans if the bout wasn't as compelling as fans hoped.
"I'm going to tell you why Conor McGregor is still doing over a million pay-per-view buys and Floyd isn't," White said. "Because Conor McGregor will fight anybody, anywhere, any time. Including Floyd Mayweather."
