UFC President Dana White Warns Fans that it Will Take ‘Years’ for Floyd Mayweather to get Fighting Fit…
With all the news yesterday about Tony Ferguson’s injury, fight fans were given respite from the endless speculation about Floyd Mayweather’s future. The recently retired boxing superstar is being linked to a UFC debut. He last fought in August of 2017 when he took on Conor McGregor in a glorious spectacle at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Mayweather walked away with $200 million, while McGregor earned himself a cool $100 million. Needless to say, both men would be happy to do it all over again. This time though Mayweather is happily fuelling the fire about a potential fight under MMA rules.
While fans are understandably skeptical, the story has gained traction because UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has insisted that he is training the unbeaten boxer in the arts of MMA. However, don’t get too excited yet. UFC President Dana White is ready to crush your dreams of seeing Mayweather get kicked in the head.
Not Ready
Mayweather recently ruffled the feathers of a lot of MMA stars when he said that he’d rate his kicks as 3/10 but his wrestling at 7/10. The American has no known experience in combat sports outside of his immaculate boxing career. He reckons it would take him eight months to get up to scratch. Not so according to Dana White.
“Years,” White said. “It takes years of wrestling, martial arts, and combat sports training, to be a mixed martial artist. He’s a defensive master with his hands, doing all this stuff. When someone double-legs you and drops you on your head, he doesn’t have the defense for that. Yeah, no.”
Too Long
The problem for Mayweather – if the world’s richest athlete can be said to have a problem – is that age is not on his side. He has recently turned 41 so realistically he doesn’t have years to concentrate on jiu-jitsu, or Muay Thai or whatever. As Joe Rogan said, as soon as he steps into an octagon, he’s getting leg kicked and then taken down to the mat.
Despite this, White was able to share some optimism with fans. TMZ asked him straight out whether or not he thinks the fight will ever happen. With the dollar signs literally shining out of eyeballs, White said:
“I’m interested. Obviously, he’s interested and the last time we were both interested you saw what happened.”
Right Opponent
You do feel that if Mayweather does fight under MMA rules, it’s all about finding him the right opponent. With his incredible 50-0 boxing record and a billion dollars in the bank, he’s not going to want to get embarrassed. Conor McGregor is unlikely to be the man standing opposite him, simply because McGregor has too many tools to damage him.
Instead, it could be someone like CM Punk. A fighter with enough name recognition to make it promotable, but who Mayweather can be competitive against. There really aren’t that many out there. This story is still gathering pace. In the crazy world of the Mayweathers, you never know what is going to happen next. Money talks.
