Floyd Mayweather Jr is dropping more and more hints that his participation in combat sports is not over yet. Mayweather has teased the idea of reconvening his career under the UFC promotional banner.
Mayweather has now shared that training is underway as he looks to learn the craft of MMA and he suggests he could be ready to enter the cage by the end of the year.
“I started training already,” Mayweather said to Fighthype.com. “Not the physical part – endurance, as far as moving around. So far, I’ve started running. …
“I’m thinking about fighting in the MMA, I’ve thought about it. … I started training in Miami.
I look forward to fighting probably by the end of the year. We don’t know. Right now it’s a 50-50 (chance), not a hundred percent. But we’ve started training.”
“Me and Woodley have spoke to each other on numerous occasions. We talked.
We said we’re going to start working out, as far as he’s got a great hand game already. I’m going to be working with different guys in the jiu-jitsu world. My wrestling game, I’m going to be working with guys with the wrestling.
“My kicking game, I’m going to be working with guys for the kicking game. Before I get in the octagon, I’ve got to be well rounded, all around the board.”
“Fighting is not nothing new for me. Fighting barefoot is something new, but fighting is nothing new for me.
“The thing is this — (say I’m) fighting a guy that has some unbelievable jiu-jitsu skills, unbelievable wrestling skills, but the thing is this: His chances of getting to me, I mean, the percentage of his chances getting to me to lock up with me, he has to come in first.”
“But he may lock up with me, and he may get wrapped up in certain ways. You don’t know how things could play out or how things could happen. With MMA, anything can happen. It’s brutal. It’s very, very brutal.”
“I know right now I’m the biggest name in MMA,” Mayweather said. “Hands down, I know this. And the second biggest name is Conor McGregor.”
“Conor McGregor, tough, vicious competitor. Of course, just like he feels he got dynamite hands with the 4-ounce gloves on, I feel like I got dynamite power with the 4-ounce gloves on.”
McGregor and Mayweather’s names will be forever linked following their boxing exhibition last year. Mayweather however predicts the enormous weight differential will prove too big a gap to make a fight feasible.
“It’d be hard for me and Conor McGregor to fight, because if I was to fight in the MMA, I would have to fight at 145 (pounds),” Mayweather said.
“The weight class I would fight at is 145. In MMA it would be totally different because we don’t have no shoes on, and with 4-ounce gloves on, you think I’m fast with 8-ounce gloves on, imagine how fast I’d be with 4-ounce gloves on.”
READ MORE:
Joseph Parker confident that he can win a decision against Anthony Joshua
Higgins Threatens To Leave Press Conference If Joshua’s Late – “Just Chill Out, We’ll Be There,” Responds Hearn
Demitrius Andrade ready for Gennady Golovkin on May 5th!