UFC President Dana White will not stand in lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s way if the Irishman agrees terms to a much-hyped crossover bout with boxer Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather, a former five-division boxing champion who retired undefeated at 49-0 in 2015, has said he was coming out of retirement to take on mixed martial arts fighter McGregor, who has been challenging the American for months.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for my business, but I would never keep Conor from making that kind of money,” White said in a video interview posted on entertainment news website TMZ.
“He obviously has a lot of opportunities right now. Tony Ferguson is out there, the Floyd Mayweather thing is out there, we’ll see how this thing plays out.”
Mayweather has asked for a guaranteed $100 million to make the fight happen, with $15 million going to McGregor, while White has talked of $25 million to each plus pay-per-view money.
The pair will also have to agree to a format which Mayweather insisted would be straight boxingwhen interviewed by British media over the weekend.
(Writing by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford – Reuters)
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