McGregor gets deadline for Mayweather bout
UFC president says Irishman must agree to megafight by end of today
>> LONDON: Mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor has been given a Sunday deadline to agree to fight retired boxing great Floyd Mayweather, Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White said.
White, speaking on the Jim Rome radio show, said he will settle the matter with McGregor by today or move on and forget about the muchteased possibility of matching star attractions from both fighting realms in one contest.
“I plan on having this thing locked up by this Sunday [today] and then moving on to Team Mayweather and starting to negotiate with them,” White said. “If we really do get it done in that time frame then this thing could possibly happen.”
White, whose UFC group has rights to any McGregor fight and must make a deal with him before approaching Mayweather about coming out of retirement, likes his chances of at least having a pitch to make to the unbeaten boxer.
“I think they are pretty good,” White said. “Hopefully Monday I’m going to go and sit down with Team Mayweather.
“I still need to go negotiate with them. There’s no guarantee that we’re going to come to a deal.”
White was also firm about getting the talks to that stage by next week or shutting down any chance of it once and for all.
“I just can’t keep messing with this thing,” White said. “I need to run my business and I have to focus on all the other things that are going on around here.”
White’ s plans for McGregorMay weather, a mega fight that he has said could make each fighter US$75 million (around 2.6 billion baht), were hit when boxers Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin set Sept 16 for their three-title middleweight showdown.
“That was the date we were shooting for,” White said. “We should have moved faster in the negotiations.”
The holdup, White said, “has nothing to do with Mayweather’s side. This is on our side”.
McGregor, a 28-year-old Irishman, has been the UFC’s most popular fighter and among its top money spinners while Mayweather, a 40-yearold American, retired in 2015 with a 49-0 record including 26 victories by knockout.
FURY RETURN ON HOLD
Tyson Fury’s bid to return to the ring is on hold after a UK-Anti Doping hearing i nvolving t he former world heavyweight champion was postponed.
Fury had been hoping to make his comeback with a bout in July, but the controversial British fighter is still waiting for a final ruling from Ukad after the hearing into a suspended drugs ban started on Monday.
Ukad is reported to have asked for the postponement because of a potential conflict of interest involving a member of its panel, and has therefore chosen to revisit the hearing at a later date.
The hearing, which was expected to conclude this week, was due to rule on allegations Fury and his cousin and fellow heavyweight Hughie Fury tested positively for nandrolone in 2015.
Both fighters deny using the banned anabolic steroid, and it is also understood they had no plans to use the consumption of contaminated meat as their defence, as had been reported.
British Boxing Board of Control general secretary Robert Smith told Sky Sports: “It’s been adjourned to carry on later on.
“This is one of those legal cases where anything legal goes a long time. I’m not surprised, it’s not unusual, it’s obviously a complex case. I will expect a decision when I’m given it.”
Tyson Fury has not fought since beating Wladimir Klitschko to win the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles in November 2015.
He faces the prospect of waiting for the hearing to finally be concluded, then for Ukad’s decision and any potential punishment he may receive, before attempting to recover his boxing licence.
“It reflects badly on Ukad; it’s taken all this time to get there and in the meantime there’s no outcome,” promoter Frank Warren said.
“This is crazy. It’s people’s lives on hold, and it’s wrong.”