Conor McGregor still dreams of a second boxing match with Floyd Mayweather.
McGregor was stopped by Mayweather in the 10th round in a one-sided bout that generated 4.3 million pay per view buys and a fortune for both fighters in August 2017. The 31-year-old MMA star wants a second chance and believes he can win.
“I would like to rematch Floyd,” he said during an ESPN MMA video interview. “… I mean, he can pick someone else but it won’t be the same. I did phenomenal in [the first] bout. The only reason I lost that bout was I prepared for a backfooted … style of opponent. When the fight was like that, I picked him apart.
“Then he came forward and I started pressing. I wasn’t sinking into my shots like I am now with my boxing coaches that are drilling specific boxing things into me again. I know I’d beat Floyd if we rematch … WHEN we rematch.”
McGregor said he and Mayweather had an oral agreement to do an MMA-rules fight after their boxing match but he doesn’t expect that to happen.
“Obviously that’s not going to happen,” he said. “I might not push on that, but I would like to box him. I think that’d be a good rematch.”
McGregor was asked whether a rematch could take place this year?
“You never know,” he said. “They’re good people to do business with, the Showtime people and Floyd. You never know.”
Mayweather, who will be 43 next month, and UFC’s Dana White have suggested they have some sort of agreement for “Money” to return to the ring but haven’t been specific.
Another possibility for both Mayweather and McGregor is a fight with Manny Pacquiao, who lost a decision to Mayweather in another financial bonanza in 2015. A rematch also would do well. And fans almost certainly would buy into a Pacquiao-McGregor fight.
“There was an offer made [on a Pacquiao bout],” McGregor said. He was asked to elaborate on that but said, “not just yet.”