By Edward Chaykovsky
UFC featherweight world champion Conor McGregor rejected rumors of receiving an offer of $50 million for a fight with former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
According to McGregor, he received an offer of $7 million - with Mayweather getting $100 million.
Mayweather, who retired last September after dominating Andre Berto, has been pounding the drums about returning to the ring for a fight with McGregor.
McGregor wants more money for the fight, a lot more - an equal portion to Mayweather.
"I hear the boy talking. The leak came out, it was him that leaked the rumor and it said he gets $100 million and I get $7 million -- that's a pay cut to me. I don't take pay cuts. I thought boxing was where the money was at. The $7 million is absolutely laughable. He's talking $100 million -- I'm also talking $100 million," McGregor told ESPN.
"I'm 27 years of age and I'm just about halfway through a $100 million contract. At 27 years of age, Floyd Mayweather was on Oscar De La Hoya's undercard. That's the truth of it. He's getting old now. I have the size, I have the reach, I have the height, I have the youth. He needs me. I don't need him. Who else can he fight? He fights someone else in the boxing realm and it's like all of a sudden the pay rate goes from $100 million to $15 million. So he needs me. If he wants to talk, we can talk. But it's me who's in control here."
Mayweather recently stated that the contest must take place under boxing rules - which is fine with McGregor.
"I don't really care about rules. He can make all the rules he wants," McGregor said. "I know he will not want to fight in a mixed martial arts contest, in a true fight. If you want to fight in a limited fight, that's no problem. We can do that. I will set aside many other forms of fighting that I practice in and I will focus on one particular craft. I'm in the game of spinning plates.
"I'm spinning a boxing plate. I'm spinning a taekwondo plate. I'm spinning a jiu-jitsu plate. I'm spinning a freestyle wrestling plate. A karate plate. There's so many spinning plates in this game. If I was to just put all them down and have one boxing plate spinning, it would be like a load off my shoulders."
