Floyd Mayweather Says He’s The ‘Face Of Mixed Martial Arts’
Yesterday, Floyd Mayweather Jr. rekindled the flames for his oft-rumored boxing match against Conor McGregor by boasting he’d only pay ‘The Notorious’ million to face him in an interview with ESPN, adding that he didn’t deserve the 0 million he’s spoken out for.
That was far from all Mayweather ended up saying during a tour of the world-famous sports network, as he took things to an all-new level in a Facebook Live interview with Bryan Campbell (quotes via MMA Fighting). In it, “Money” claimed that he was not only the face of boxing, but of mixed martial arts as well:
“I’m not just the face of boxing, I’m the face of mixed martial arts also. And I’m not an MMA fighter but I do support all contact sports. I haven’t seen an MMA fight in a while but anytime I see an MMA fighter that wants to take a picture with me, I’m gonna take a picture with them because they go through a lot. Fighters go through a lot to get to a certain level and MMA fighters go through a lot just like boxers go through a lot.”
Now retired after making a record-setting purse for his overdue – and lackluster – ‘super fight’ with Manny Pacquiao in May of 2015 and a not-so-awaited decision win over Andre Berto later that year, the undefeated legend wanted his listeners to know his opinion McGregor didn’t want to fight him, and was tapping out only two fights ago:
“I want to tell everybody this, right now. Conor McGregor, do he want to fight? Absolutely not. I’m trying to see if he really want to fight but we can’t make the fight happen because he’s not his own boss. And I want the world to know this: just a fight, two fights ago, he was [knocks table twice] tapping out. He was just [knocks table twice] quitting.
“A lot of fighters – legendary fighters, fighters of today, MMA fighters – everybody says, ‘Floyd Mayweather do us wrong.’ Call me what you want to call me but I’m not a quitter. I don’t quit.”
Love him or hate him, Mayweather has a point there. Either way, headlines for a fight that may never even come close to being a reality are popping up left and right after cooling down heavily over the past six months, and a lot of that is Mayweather’s doing.
The prospect never seems to go away for good. Do you care enough to wait around for this hyped-up unicorn of a bout, or is Mayweather simply riding MMA’s coattails as he sees it overshine boxing in a big way?
