By Mark Vester
And they are at it again. The pound-for-pound king of boxing, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and UFC president Dana White are once again exchanging verbal blows in the press.
Earlier this month, Mayweather and Dana White exchanged a few choice words (click here for link), and this week they continued the battle. A recent article on Yahoo Sports mapped out the recent exchange between the two.
During a Tuesday open workout for his upcoming May 5 bout with Oscar De La Hoya, Mayweather once again gave his feelings on the UFC and their fighters being inferior to boxers.
"UFC's champions can't handle boxing. That's why they are in UFC." Mayweather said. "Put one of our guys in UFC and he'd be the champion. Any good fighter, he'd straight knock them out. Take Chuck Liddell. Put him in the ring with a (boxer) who is just 10-0 and Chuck Liddell would get punished. They wouldn't have a chance to grapple (us) because we'd knock them out."
Dana White quickly countered back at Mayweather during an interview on Wednesday.
"Boxers couldn't become mixed martial artists. That's why they're boxers," White. "They are one trick ponies. Our guys can do everything. They can box, they can kick box, they can wrestle and do jiu-jitsu. They are much better athletes than boxers."
White then challenged Mayweather to enter the UFC and face lightweight champion Sean Sherk, who weighs 155-pounds, to settle the debate on who would win between a boxer and a mixed martial artist.
"I used to talk like Floyd Mayweather when I was involved in boxing," White said. "I talked just like him, until I educated myself about this sport. These guys are amazing athletes, Floyd Mayweather is one of the best boxers ever, (and) Sean Sherk will whoop his ass in under two minutes."
"Any day that Mayweather wants to put his money and his ass where his mouth is, I'm ready," White continued. "If he wants to step up, let's do it."
Mayweather feels that he would handle Sherk with ease, but sees no reason to enter the UFC from a financial point of view.
"I'll beat him and come home and watch basketball. Why would I go into a sport paying hundreds of thousands when I'm in a sport paying $20 million?" Mayweather said.
For a fight between a UFC champion and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., arguably the best boxer in the world, White would put up enough money that it "make sense for Floyd," but doubts that he would accept the Sherk fight.
"I'm willing to put together a fight for Sean Sherk and Floyd Mayweather with numbers that would make sense for Floyd," White said. "And I guarantee you he would not accept it. Floyd Mayweather would never fight in the UFC because he would get his head ripped off."
