According to UFC superstar Conor McGregor, former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather will earn a lot of respect if he actually takes part in a fight under Mixed Martial Arts rules.
Last August, Mayweather snapped a two-year retirement when he fought UFC superstar Conor McGregor, who was making his boxing debut.
After stopping McGregor in the tenth round at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the 40 year old Mayweather announced his retirement from the sport - with a perfect record of 50-0 with 27 knockouts.
As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, Mayweather is heading to Minnesota where he's set to meet with Showtime Sports head honcho Stephen Espinoza.
And according to Espinoza, the two of them will definitely discuss the subject of a potential Mixed Martial Arts fight.
"It will be a topic of conversation," Espinoza told TMZ Sports. "There's a chance ... whatever he puts his mind to, he sort of wills into happening. [Floyd] willed the McGregor fight into happening. So, if he sets his mind to it, it'll happen."
In the last few days Mayweather has posted at least two teaser videos - attempting to troll fans into believing that he's going to make his debut in MMA.
In both videos, a barefoot Mayweather is entering an octagon cage, which is widely used by the UFC and other MMA companies, and he shakes out a few moves.
"2018. Floyd 'Money' Mayweather. MMA. What are the odds Paddy," Mayweather stated on one of the videos that went viral.
McGregor's opinion of Mayweather will grow by leaps and bounds - if Mayweather follows through with the speculation.
“If he does do it, I know he’s flirting with it, I would have respect for him. I think it would get his earned respect then, if he was to step in [the Octagon],” McGregor said to Adam Glyn. “He’s engaging, we’re engaging, so we’ll see.”
However, McGregor believes the entire stunt will backfire if Mayweather is simply hyping up the speculation to keep his name in the press.
“Of course, I’m seeing all the stuff Floyd’s putting out, all the stuff in the media,” McGregor said. “If it is [just hype], it will follow him for the rest of his days that he did not do it. I said I would do it and I stepped up and I done it. His time now. I went into his game, he should come into mine.”
McGregor has been away from the UFC, despite being the lightweight champion, since 2016.
“I’m currently in negotiations to face my next opponent and we have many options,” McGregor said. “There’s the current interim lightweight champion [Tony Ferguson], there’s an undefeated Dagestani [Khabib Nurmagomedov], maybe a big Russian event, there’s obviously the [Nate] Diaz trilogy, of course the Mayweather fight is there. There’s many options. So we’re just at the table at the moment. Times is good, life is good.”
