As of Monday, Floyd Mayweather is a retired boxer who has embraced the promotional side of fight business. And there's no fight he enjoys promoting more than his long-rumored, will-they-or-won't-they bout with UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor—especially after UFC president Dana White got involved.
White very publicly offered Mayweather and McGregor $25 million each on Friday for the fight, throwing down the gauntlet in the seemingly neverending saga of words between the two fighters. "You’re talking to somebody about the fight, you’re talking to me," White said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. "I’m the promoter. Conor is under contract to me." (That offer came less then two days after Mayweather said he's "absolutely not stepping in the ring.")
But the undefeated boxer apparently felt slighted by what he considered a small offer—he had previously suggested a $100 million billing for himself to $15 million for McGregor. In a video interview while Mayweather was in New York on Monday, the boxer and called White a “small boss” and “just an employee.”
"The last time I made $25 million was 10 years ago," Mayweather says in the video. “In sponsorship money leading up to the Pacquiao fight that week I made somewhere [between] $25 and $30 million.”
Although a superfight between McGregor and Mayweather doesn't seem anywhere close to happening, it's entertaining to watch both sides run their mouths—and that's exactly what they're counting on.