As previously reported, UFC champion Conor McGregor had been given a Sunday deadline to agree on terms, with Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White, for a boxing match with former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather.
On Saturday night, during an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, UFC revealed that a deal was reached McGregor - and now White will have to reach a deal with Mayweather's team.
“We’re right there to get this deal done. I would like to get it done with Sunday and negotiate with team Mayweather and if that deal gets done we’ll get it done. If not, we’ll move on. I think we’re there. Conor and I have agreed on a deal. But then you get a bunch of lawyers involved and things get stupid," White said.
White, whose UFC group has exclusive rights to any McGregor fight, needed to reach a deal with him before approaching Mayweather.
"Hopefully Monday I'm going to go and sit down with Team Mayweather. I still need to go negotiate with them. There's no guarantee that we're going to come to a deal," White said.
White's plans for McGregor-Mayweather, a megafight that he has said could make McGregor $75 million and Mayweather $100 million, took a big hit when Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin finalized a deal for September 16 for their four-title middleweight showdown.
"That was the date we were shooting for," White said. "We should have moved faster in the negotiations."
The holdup, White said, "has nothing to do with Mayweather's side. This is on our side".
McGregor, a 28-year-old superstar from Ireland, has been the UFC's most popular fighter and among its top money spinners while Mayweather, 40-years-old, retired in 2015 with a 49-0 record including 26 victories by knockout.