Conor McGregor Teases Floyd Mayweather Rematch

To the joy of the fight game, Conor McGregor is back. And with that comes the inevitable callouts the Irishman is notorious for. None of us should be surprised to hear him bring up a Floyd Mayweather rematch.

In the weeks leading up to his pivotal main event versus Khabib Nurmagomedov at this Saturday night’s (October 6, 2018) UFC 229, McGregor has taken aim at any and all top names of the fight game. He’s called out legend Anderson Silva. He even threw GSP’s name in that conversation for good measure. That’s far from all, however.

McGregor said he would fight Tony Ferguson or Anthony Pettis if Khabib pulled out for any reason. “The Notorious” has also discussed facing longtime rival Nate Diaz for the proposed 165-pound title.

But there’s one name who keeps popping up.

That name is one Floyd Mayweather. McGregor is just over a year removed from his overblown spectacle of a boxing match with ‘Money’ that earned him a rumored $85 million. The UFC megastar is not surprisingly looking for a rematch because of it. During a recent appearance on ‘Ariel Helwani‘s MMA Show’ this week (via MMA Mania), McGregor was asked if Mayweather factored into his plans.

He replied that the boxing great indeed did. However, he wants it to be in his arena the second time:

“Yes, of course he does. If he has the bottle to come over [to the UFC] and do it, like he said he would, like he said he has. So let’s see, I don’t necessarily think he does. But we’ll see what happens. I would also like to box him again. Everything is being discussed.”

“Money” To UFC?

Mayweather has teased a UFC crossover for some time. But it seems unlikely he’d risk his spotless 50-0 record to compete in a sport he’s obviously facing a huge disadvantage. Still, McGregor says all options are being discussed.

He prefers if it’s straight boxing or MMA. If it’s under a ‘modified’ ruleset, however, he’d choose boxing:

”Every rule set. All rule modifications. Everything’s been discussed. I feel if it’s not an MMA bout, then I don’t want to know. It’s either a straight MMA bout or a straight boxing bout. If they come looking for modified rules, I would rather just box the kid again. You know what I mean? If you don’t want to deal with it, then don’t deal with it and stop going on like you’d do it.”

McGregor dove into some of the dynamics of his loss to “Money” on last night’s “Conan.” He told host Conan O’Brien the many times he had Mayweather’s back were rendered useless under boxing rules:

”There were many situations in that last match, I scooped up his back many times, I was at his back. Under the Marquess of Queensbury rules, you cannot be at a man’s back. So every time I took his back, which in reality is the most dominant position in fighting – if you take a man’s back, you can see him and he can’t see you. You can hit him and he can’t hit you. It’s the most dominant position there is in fighting.”

Ref Involvement

A fair point to be certain, but it’s doubtful Mayweather would agree to rules that allowed to have his back taken standing or on the ground.

The former UFC double champ also discussed the referee’s involvement in his Mayweather fight. It’s something that has been discussed over and again. McGregor said Robert Byrd jumped in and reset them too often. But even though he felt that way, he acknowledged that Mayweather won fair and square.

Overall, he dubbed it a great learning experience in a sport he had no prior bouts in:

”In a boxing bout, any time the back is taken the ref dives in, and the ref dived in heavy as well. He dived in and grabbed me, threw me halfway across the ring. We’re halfway through the fight and he reset us. So that was something I was a little upset about.”

”But listen, I knew the rules going in, I was beaten fair and square,” he finished. “Floyd stayed composed, he’s very, very experienced under that ruleset, so it was a great experience for me. It’s good to be back in my own game and I look forward to bringing my tools back before the public.”