Manny Pacquiao wants to set a match with Conor McGregor.
UFC Lightweight champion Conor McGregor has not returned to the Octagon since winning the title off Eddie Alvarez last winter. In the meantime, he lost a boxing match to Floyd Mayweather and is thought to be re-negotiating his contract with the UFC. However, there are suspicions that the Irishman instead plans to continue boxing, and is cultivating a bout with Filipino star Manny Pacquiao.
On Thanksgiving Manny posted this picture on his Instagram which incited the rumors. Last week, Yahoo.com reported that Pacquiao told APF talks were in the works between his team and McGregor’s:
“If we can negotiate it, I have no problem. It is OK with both of us.”
When asked if any serious talks had occurred, Pacquiao responded:
“Initially, but we have not yet had any follow-up conversations.”
When confronted with this news, UFC boss Dana White had a predictable but entertaining reaction.
“That would be weird because he’s under contract with us,” said White. “If that’s true, I will be suing Manny Pacquiao and whoever’s representing him, so I’m assuming that’s not true.”
Dana White doesn’t have the best relationship with Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, with each calling the other certain expletives over the year, and some reconciliation would have to occur to make a Conor VS Manny boxing match.
For Conor to take another boxing match would mean vacating his UFC title and any claim at being an all-time great MMA fighter. The most likely situation is that Conor and the UFC are struggling to come to the terms of McGregor’s next fight.
Many fans are not so much excited to see McGregor fight again as they are to have clarity restored to the Lightweight division.
McGregor brings a large amount of value to the UFC and has expressed desire to be given equity in the company. After a one-hundred-million-dollar boxing payday, fighting in MMA for a couple million per show is a tough proposition. But mega-conglomerate WME-IMG offering McGregor equity would be completely unprecedented. As Dana White put it at a media scrum, “Did Jordan get equity?”
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