The pressure is on. Conor McGregor thinks Floyd Mayweather is going to have to fight again because he got ripped off by Showtime.
It was far from a cutting-edge interview, but McGregor has been making the rounds with on-the-street interviews this week in New York. His latest, which was picked up by TMZ Sports, claims the Showtime exec Stephen Espinoza painted Mayweather vs. McGregor with less than a record Pay-Per-View number so that they wouldn’t have to pay Mayweather what they should have for the bout.
At least, that’s the insinuation.
“I think Floyd needs to fight again because he got ripped. He got ripped,” McGregor said, laughing as he proclaimed, “He’s the heaviest rip in the game.”
McGregor and UFC president Dana White have been pronouncing Mayweather vs. McGregor the biggest fight in history, but the numbers, particularly the Pay-Per-View numbers, have been a bone of contention between the McGregor/White side of the equation and the Showtime/Espinoza side.
McGregor and White have consistently claimed record numbers, while Showtime and Espinoza say the Mayweather vs. McGregor spectacle fell just short. McGregor’s not buying it, and seems to think Mayweather got duped by his broadcast partners at Showtime.
“Why do you think Espinoza was saying these Pay-Per-View numbers?” McGregor posed. “They don’t gotta pay him.”
Of course, this comes on the heels of Mayweather’s recent social media push into the MMA space. The 50-0 boxer has been teasing a move into the Octagon. McGregor, who would of course hold a major advantage over the boxer in his environment, would be all for another spectacle of a bout with Mayweather.
After reportedly earning somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million for boxing Mayweather, much of McGregor’s bluster is likely an attempt to take advantage of Mayweather’s recent MMA tease and goad him into the Octagon for another massive payday.
