Conor McGregor’s interest in fighting Floyd Mayweather is mutual, says Showtime executive

It might forever remain a mythical showdown reserved only for video gamers, but Ultimate Fighting Championship star Conor McGregor says he believes when it comes to drawing power, he’s on equal footing with retired unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. if they were to ever step back into a boxing ring.

“I hear the boy talking. It was him that leaked the rumor that he’d get $100 million, I’d get $7 million. That’s a pay cut for me. I don’t take pay cuts. I thought boxing was where the money was at. Seven million is absolutely laughable,” McGregor told Kenny Mayne on ESPN in an interview that aired Sunday morning.

“He’s talking $100 million, I’m also talking $100 million. I’m 27 years of age and I’m just about halfway through a $100-million contract. At 27, Floyd Mayweather was on Oscar De La Hoya’s undercard, so compare that.”

Mayweather, 39, announced his retirement after defeating Andre Berto in September, but recently expressed interest in a return for a “nine-figure” pay day.

One of Mayweather’s closest confidants is Showtime Executive Vice President Stephen Espinoza, whose network staged six Mayweather fights from 2013 to 2015, including the richest one-day sporting event of all time, a Mayweather victory over Manny Pacquiao in May 2015, when Mayweather earned more than $220 million.

“He seems to be very interested in McGregor -- in public settings and private settings,” Espinoza told the Los Angeles Times late Saturday after Mayweather helped promote (but didn’t attend) a three-bout card of super-welterweight title fights in Las Vegas.

“With nine-figure purses, that’s Floyd’s way of saying he’s only going to come back for a big, huge, worldwide-level event. He’s not going to come back for something ordinary. He’s saying, ‘I will come back for something extraordinary that’s going to make everyone sit up and take notice.’ I think that’s what he’s looking to do.”

Espinoza said he has not spoken to any UFC executive about the fight. “The signals we are getting are that they are not interested,” he said. “If there’s a conversation to be had, we’ll have it.”

McGregor fanned the flames in his television interview.

“He’s getting old now,” McGregor said. “I have the size, I have the reach, I have the height, I have the youth. He needs me. I don’t need him. That’s the truth of it. Who else can he fight? He fights someone else in the boxing realm, all of a sudden the pay goes from $100 million to $15 million, so if he wants to talk, we can talk, but it’s me who’s in control here.

“He can make all the rules he wants. I know he would not want to fight me in a mixed martial arts contest, a true fight. If you want to fight in a limited fight, no problem, we can do that. I’ll focus on one particular craft. [In MMA], I’m in a game of spinning plates … to put all of them down and have just one boxing plate spinning, it would be like a load off my shoulders.”

McGregor discussed the notion of a Mayweather bout before his March loss to Nate Diaz. McGregor boldly volunteered to fight Diaz, who was a late replacement for injured Rafael dos Anjos, at 170 pounds -- 25 pounds higher than the weight limit at featherweight, where the charismatic Irishman stands as UFC champion.

Diaz won by second-round submission as McGregor wilted under Diaz’s heavy punches and the fatigue of carrying the extra weight.

When McGregor refused UFC orders to leave Europe and participate in a UFC 200 news conference for a July 9 rematch with Diaz, the Irishman was yanked from the card.

“It was a publicized civil war,” McGregor said. “I wanted to be focused on my training. I was in a time where I was figuring out something [in training]. I just wanted to do reasonable media stuff … 40-hour flights … a runaround of New York, Vegas, California, 70 talk shows, adverts. I was, ‘I only made you $400 million last week! I need to get right.’ I was deep in the process.

“It blew up. I was just kind of having fun with that at the start, it was kind of halfhearted, and then all of a sudden, it went [toxic] and it was, ‘You’re off [UFC] 200.’ It was fun. To see it all blow up like that was amusing for awhile. Seeing the damn press conference take place, I was like, ‘I should’ve just jumped on the damn flight, stuck it out, went with it.’

“But sometimes you’ve got to do what’s right for you.”

McGregor last week met with UFC Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta and President Dana White in Los Angeles to soothe the ill will, and the UFC is now apparently seeking to stage the McGregor-Diaz rematch by September.

“I’m committed to the fight game,” McGregor said. “I enjoy challenges. I enjoy fighting, period.”