Well, that was short-lived. Earlier today, a “news” story broke regarding a possible, in fact an imminent, Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor super-duper-mega-fight set for Las Vegas. As per a report in UK tabloid The Sun, who quoted “a source close to Mayweather,” the fight would be announced soon. Well, no it won’t.
Few fans believed it anyway, but UFC President Dana White, in speaking with Lance Pugmire of The LA Times, put the story firmly to bed today.
“McGregor-Mayweather? No,” White said. “It’d be very hard to pull off. I’ve heard Floyd is on a worldwide vacation on Mayweather Air spending millions in every country he visits.”
And when he was asked if McGregor could choose to fight outside of the UFC in this, or any other boxing match, White was firm with his answer:
“Never. We’re his promoter. We’d have to make the fight,” he stated.
White lambasted The Sun and called the publication’s story “completely fiction,” and “bottom-feeder stuff.”
Just where do these type of stories come from and why? Fiction such as this proves to be as annoying as it is perplexing for fight fans. Mayweather, 49-0 of course, is constantly being asked when he will fight again, yet the 39-year-old seems content and happy enough in retirement. The rumours of him boxing again will not go away (until Floyd is about 42 or 43-years-old, probably) and a regular – and hugely high-paying – return to the ring could conceivably happen this year or next. But until Mayweather officially announces anything himself, nobody should get their hopes up. That is if fans really want to see Mayweather back in action again anyway.
Now, back to the real boxing. There are a quite staggering amount of potentially great fights taking place all around the world tomorrow. On Sunday, the press will hopefully have some spectacular fights to write about. Floyd Mayweather will have to make do with not having the usual attention he garners during Cinco de Mayo weekend. This one anyway.
