A potential pay-per-view crushing super fight between UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor and boxing great Floyd Mayweather is close to happening, according to multiple sources.
The Sun reports that a source close to McGregor informed them that both McGregor and Mayweather have settled on respective payouts, although the contract has yet to be signed due to a "third party holdup." The Sun also mentioned that the fight could be announced within two weeks.
Fightful.com has been told that the amount agreed upon would see Conor McGregor making significantly more than the $25 million offered to him by Dana White to make the fight happen. White is likely the third party-holdup mentioned, as he's President of the UFC, which Conor McGregor competes for as their 155 pound champion. White has openly stated that he thinks odds are long to make the fight, comparing the likelihood to Conor McGregor serving as backup quarterback to the Super Bowl winning New England Patriots.
It's worth noting that Mayweather was also offered $25 million by Dana White, after Mayweather offered McGregor $15 million. Conor McGregor would see the largest payday of his career, despite averaging well over one million pay-per-view buys per fight over his last fight bouts. To put that in perspective, Floyd Mayweather landed at about 400,000 buys for his retirement fight against Andre Berto, immediately following his record breaking 4.6 million buy performance against Manny Pacquiao in 2015.
Mayweather hasn't even been keen on McGregor being compared to him, as evidenced by an interview last year.
"I didn't know he was undefeated, I didn't know he reigned in MMA for 20 years and was undefeated, and was world champion in five different weight classes. That's something I didn't know," Mayweather told TMZ last year "If you say he's the Floyd Mayweather of MMA, then I'm trying to find out. Has he ever made $300 million in one night? $100 million in one night? $70 million in one night?"
Last May, Mayweather admitted to cooking up the rumors of a potential fight with the UFC great.
"It's possible. It was a name that was shot at me, but the rumors that y'all been hearing is the rumors that I started," Mayweather said to Fight Hype. "It may not be a rumor, keep y'all fingers crossed. It may be boxer vs. MMA fighter."
McGregor has indicated that he may employ the Ali Act to help make the fight happen in a boxing ring, as Mayweather has no interest in competing in an MMA bout. Mayweather has no MMA experience, as McGregor has no professional experience as a boxer.
McGregor is also the UFC Lightweight Champion, having just been stripped of his UFC Featherweight Championship. The company has an interim Lightweight Championship fight set between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson in March, as McGregor takes time off to await the birth of his first child.
The Irishman hasn't been simply waiting, however, as he posted a video of him training boxing last week at SGB gym in Ireland.
The two sides have engaged in trash talk for nearly a year now, with Mayweather claiming he'd slap McGregor. Following his UFC 202 victory over Eddie Alvarez, McGregor also obtained a boxing license in the state of California. Current odds list Mayweather as a -2300 favorite in a boxing match with McGregor as a +1000 underdog.
