According to UFC president Dana White, there are realistic talks with former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather about coming out of retirement for a run in mixed martial arts.
“We’re talking to Floyd about doing a UFC deal,” White told ESPN. “It’s real. He was talking about [boxing] Conor McGregor. Was that real? Have you heard Floyd talk about many things that aren’t real? He usually tips his hand when he’s in the media and then that sh*t ends up happening.
“We’re interested in doing something with Floyd. Everything is a realistic possibility. Mayweather versus McGregor **ing happened. Anything is possible.”
Mayweather, a former five division world champion, snapped a two year retirement back in August to fight UFC superstar Conor McGregor in a boxing match at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Mayweather, 40 years old, stopped McGregor in the tenth round to raise his record to 50-0 with 27 knockouts.
The pay-per-view did huge business, with 4.3 million buys and over $600 million in revenue.
In a recent interview, Mayweather said that he was approached by the UFC to ink a multi-fight deal that is claimed be valued in realm of a billion dollars.
“If I want, I can go, I can come right back to the UFC, I can go fight in the octagon,” Mayweather said. “I can do a three- or four-fight deal in the octagon and make a billion dollars.”
Veteran UFC commentator Joe Rogan, who is close associates with White, also confirmed that Mayweather is in talks with the company about a move to MMA.
“Floyd talked about it. This is one thing I can tell you,” Rogan said in a podcast released on Tuesday. “Dana told me that Floyd wants to make a deal in the UFC. Like legitimately. I texted him, I go ‘Is Floyd really talking about fighting MMA?’ He goes ‘Yeah, he’s f***ing crazy. I told him he’d get killed. But he’s still talking about doing it.”
2023-10-20 05:17:26
