Total purse could reach $175M in proposed Mayweather-McGregor bout
Every week seems to bring a new tidbit of information about a potential boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
On Wednesday, UFC president Dana White provided the latest. He used an appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” to discuss potential payouts for Mayweather and McGregor if the fight has the success at the box office and on pay per view that’s expected.
“If the fight sells as well as I think it can, Floyd makes a little north of $100 (million) and Conor makes $75 (million),” White said. “(Mayweather) feels like he’s the A-side and he should get more of it. We haven’t really gotten into that negotiation yet.
”I wanted to get McGregor locked in first, because McGregor is under contract with me. At the end of the day, does this fight make a ton of sense for me? It really doesn’t. But Conor wants this thing really bad, and I’ve said it many times, the kid’s stepped up and saved some big fights for me, man, so I’m in. I’ll figure it out.”
While the figures make for tantalizing headlines, White continued to caution the fight is far from a done deal. He thinks he can wrap up negotiations with McGregor this week. But finalizing a deal with Mayweather will be tougher.
At least the lofty numbers indicate a step in the right direction. Mayweather mocked an offer of $25 million for each fighter that White proposed in January.
Even if the money is agreed on, White said the fight is far from a sure thing.
“Obviously, in boxing, you start to negotiate things like the gloves and the officials and the judges, and how big the ring is,” White said. “A lot of different things you can negotiate as far as the fight goes. But again, I haven’t gotten into a room with Team Mayweather yet, and who knows. The Conor side, we’re good on the Conor side.
”I need to figure out the Mayweather side, and maybe it can’t be done. Maybe the other side can’t be done, but we’ll see. I promised Conor I’d do everything I could to make this thing happen, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
White said his conversations probably would be with Mayweather adviser Al Haymon.
“One of the things that we’ve done and the reason we’ve built this brand the way that we have is we always bring people the fights they want to see,” White said. “There’s no doubt that people want to see this fight, and it’s all anybody ever asks me about, so I’m going to do my best to see if I can get this thing done.”
Mayweather, 40, retired from boxing in September 2015 with a 49-0 record. He has said he would return to fight McGregor, 28.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.
