Momentum continues to build toward a boxing showdown between Manny Pacquiao and MMA star Conor McGregor.
McGregor’s boxing coach, Phil Sutcliffe, told ESPN that there’s an “85, 90 percent chance” the crossover fight will happen this spring. “Notorious” is scheduled to face Dustin Poirier in a rematch in UFC 257 on Jan. 23.
“85, 90 percent chance, maybe April, March. March, April or May,” Sutcliffe said. “I’d like him to be in a boxing camp for at least two months, eight weeks. I mean, he’s fit now, he’s going to train straight after the fight. He’s gonna take probably a week off.
“I told him take a week off. Don’t worry, if he wants to take a week off, he can, then go straight back on the horse. We don’t want him out galavanting too much, but he has to enjoy the win, he has to enjoy the win, enjoy the contest.”
The Irishman is in negotiations with the iconic welterweight beltholder from the Philippines for what would be a lucrative event for both men.
McGregor has said he wants to win a major boxing title. He was stopped by Floyd Mayweather in his only boxing match, a 2017 event that generated a fortune.
“I know that talks are intensifying for [a fight against Pacquiao] this year,” McGregor told his website The Mac Life. “I am excited for a Manny Pacquiao bout and it looks like it will happen this year. What time this year? I am not sure.
“We’ll have to have some good discussions with Dana White and the UFC and see where it goes. I am open to it all, ready for it all. I will certainly attain a boxing world title before I call it a day.
“And I would be excited to do that against Emmanuel Pacquiao.”
Pacquiao and his handlers also have made it clear that he’s interested in meeting McGregor in what would be a lucrative pay-per-view fight.
“Right now I want to experience fighting in MMA,” Pacquiao told the Filipino outlet BusinessMirror, which was a reference to McGregor.
Pacquiao, 42, last fought in July 2019, when he defeated Keith Thurman by a split decision to win his 147-pound belt.
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