FILE – Floyd Mayweather Jr. stands in the ring before Errol Spence Jr takes on Mikey Garcia in an IBF World Welterweight Championship bout at AT&T Stadium on March 16, 2019 in Arlington, Texas. Tom Pennington/Getty Images/AFP
MANILA, Philippines—Floyd Mayweather Jr. is once again willing to step inside the ropes and do a cross-sport boxing match with either UFC superstars Conor McGregor or Khabib Nurmagomedov.
For the right price, that is.
Speaking with Club Shay Shay podcast, h/t BoxingScene.com, Mayweather said that he’s open to fighting either of the two mixed martial artists atop a boxing ring but for the minimum purse of $300 million each.
“I had my time, I had my era, so it’s these young fighters’ era now. But it’s okay for me to go fight a Khabib or a Conor and pick up – with those two fights alone I could pick up $600 million. So that don’t hurt,” said Mayweather who stepped away from boxing with a perfect 50-0 record.
Mayweather was officially retired for nearly two years before he stopped McGregor in their 2017 bout that drew 4.3 million pay-per-view buys making it the second-most bought PPV boxing event behind the American’s mega fight against rival Manny Pacquiao in 2015 that had 4.6 million buys.
That cross-sport bout against McGregor earned Mayweather $275 million—not bad for a workday that lasted less than an hour.
“So as far as me going out there competing against a guy like Conor McGregor, oh absolutely. $150 million? Not enough [to get me back in the ring]. Absolutely not, my health is more important… you give me $300 million, absolutely,” said Mayweather who even described the Irishman as lacking the punching power in boxing.
“I was having fun. I was like, ‘ah this dude punches so soft, it’s cool. I didn’t take no punches, I still got my facilities… So why would I go out there and fight these young fighters – these young lions – and risk my health? I just say: your health is your wealth. See, you have to make it make sense, I need to have my facilities also, still be sharp, be able to be agile, hang out with my kids, make smart investments.”
Mayweather, who has created a brash in-ring persona akin to wrestling heels in the WWE, acknowledged that his time has already passed and that he’s not the same fighter as he used to be.
“[People say] ‘you need to fight this guy, you need to fight that guy,’ listen, they’re called eras for a reason. I had my time, I had my era, so it’s these young fighters’ era now,” said Mayweather.