A fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. still could happen in 2017.
Although the announcement that Canelo Alvarez will fight Gennady Golovkin on Sept. 16 seemingly threw a wrench into McGregor and Mayweather possibly squaring off later this year, executive vice president of Showtime Sports Stephen Espinoza explained Thursday in an interview with FightHype.com that there’s still hope the cross-sport superfight will happen before 2018.
“I think the date really is a function of how long it takes to get a deal done because the reality is, it took a long time for the UFC and Conor to reach an agreement to allow Conor to participate. Now the real negotiations start, which is the Floyd side versus the Conor-UFC side,” Espinoza said, per MMAFighting.com. “If that drags on, then you’re probably looking at late this year. If it really drags on, then you’re looking at early next year. But if people are as motivated as they seem to be — I know how badly Floyd wants it — if we get this wrapped up pretty quickly, we could be seeing it early fall.
“That’s the goal. That’s what we’ve heard from Floyd. Now it’s just getting in a room and seeing if people will be reasonable on the kind of deal that they’re looking for.”
McGregor said recently he’s already agreed to a deal, so it’s now all about getting Mayweather to sign off on the much-anticipated bout. It could take some haggling, but Mayweather has said he wants to fight McGregor and that he’d put the odds of the fight happening at “90 percent” if he ultimately chooses to come out of retirement.
The Canelo-GGG announcement was significant because Sept. 16 was believed to be the original target date for McGregor-Mayweather. Each of Mayweather’s last 10 fights, dating back to 2009, has been scheduled around the weekends of May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) and Sept 16 (Mexican Independence Day). Boxing is big within the Mexican community globally, and Mayweather sought to leverage that interest by fighting on those holiday weekends.
But according to Espinoza, not fighting on Sept. 16 won’t deter Mayweather in this particular instance. There’s simply too much interest in him fighting McGregor.
“I’m not sure it matters because we’re dealing with an event that’s massive,” Espinoza said, per MMAFighting.com. “The only comparison that people can really make is Mayweather-(Manny) Pacquiao and you could have done that any day except Super Bowl Sunday and it would’ve been massive. So I don’t think the date will make a difference commercially.
” … The Mexican holiday has been a date that Floyd really elevated, but it’s not a date that Floyd needs to make (the fight) bigger. That fight will make the date, not the date making the fight. There are some fights where putting them on those dates makes it bigger and adds to it. This one is gonna be huge no matter what date it’s on, so really, it’s a function of what works for Floyd in the business negotiation and his preparation.”
There’s no specific deadline in terms of arranging the fight. But UFC president Dana White has made it clear he doesn’t want the negotiations to consume all of his time, and the fall will be here before you know it.
Thumbnail photo via Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports Images
