In the aftermath of Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor - there were a high number of boxers and mixed martial artists who quickly called out both athletes.
Mayweather snapped a two-year retirement back in August, for a junior middleweight fight with UFC superstar McGregor, who was making his professional debut as a boxer.
After a rapid start by McGregor, everything went downhill in the second half and Mayweather eventually stopped him in the tenth round.
There was another major return in combat sports, when another UFC superstar - Georges St-Pierre - announced he was coming back to the cage.
St-Pierre came back last month, after four years of retirement, to stop Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight title. Last week, St-Pierre vacated the title and plans to return to the welterweight limit.
In a recent interview with TSN, St-Pierre’s head coach, Firas Zahabi, said his fighter was only interested in securing the biggest showdown possible - and named both McGregor and Mayweather as targets.
“I think Georges is gonna get better, get back in the gym,” said Zahabi. “He’s gonna feel his body out and see what he wants, what’s the most interesting, epic fight out there. Mayweather? McGregor? We need a mega-fight. Georges will come back for a big, exciting fight.”
St-Pierre has received a lot of heat from MMA fans as of late, because he stepped over numerous contenders to get a crack at Bisping, and then vacated the title without making a single defense - and now appears to be targeting a pure money fight.
His trainer aggressively defended the fighter's position with respect to dropping the belt and now hunting for the big bucks.
“I always tell people, if you’re criticizing Georges, do what he did,” Zahabi said. “Do what he did first, then criticize him. It’s not easy to do what he did. He defended the title over and over again. Lots of guys had their chance. Lots of guys had their chance. Get in line, make their way the way he did it. And when he did it he never complained about nobody. He did it without complaining about anybody.
“Has he helped grow the sport or hurt it? He’s helped grow it. So a lot of guys making bigger paydays and bigger purses, bigger bonuses, why? Because of the company and the great fighters, not just Georges, all these great fighters and the company. It’s a relationship. We’ve got to respect the company, we’ve got to respect all the fighters, you’ve got to respect all these big names making the way. You’re gonna see, in the future, these guys are gonna sign rookie contracts, first year in the UFC, million-dollar contracts. But why? Because of all the greats that came before.”
St-Pierre already has a strong boxing connection. He's worked with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach for several years at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California, Roach has now taken on a bigger role with St-Pierre's team as he worked the Canadian star's corner for the Bisping fight,
