Floyd Mayweather has said he would be willing to come out of retirement to fight Conor McGregor for the modest sum of $100 million.
McGregor is said to be happy to accept $15 million - his biggest payday - for the privilege of taking on the undefeated welterweight.
Mayweather spoke about the potential event in an interview with ESPN in a conversation which was primarily about one of his favourite topics - money.
I’m saying right here: Conor McGregor keeps telling everybody he wants the fight – let’s make it happen.
We tried to make the fight. They know what my number is. My number was a guaranteed $100m. We’re the A-side and I don’t know how much money he has made? I’m pretty sure he hasn’t even made $10m from an MMA bout.
But we are willing to give him $15m and then we can talk about splitting the percentage, the back-end percentage on pay-per view.
But of course we’re the A-side. How can a guy talk about $20m or $30m if he’s never even made $8m or $9m (for one fight)?
Manny Pacquiao, eager to avenge the 2015 defeat to Mayweather, is itching for a rematch. But 'Money' has crunched the numbers. As a businessman, he has decided that the McGregor fight "makes more business sense."
Dave Hannigan, appearing on Matt Cooper's Last Word, reminded us that there are precedents for such an event.
In 1976, Muhammad Ali fought Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in the Nippon Budokan in Toyko.
Ali was enticed by the promise of $6 million. This was the same sum he had earned for the Thrilla in Manilla bout against Joe Frazier the previous year.
The 'Thrilla in Manilla', played out at the height of Ali and Frazier's fame, is one of the famous and compelling sporting events of the 20th century.
The fight with Inoki, meanwhile, is universally regarded as the most embarrassing moment of Ali's career. It ended with the crowd throwing rubbish at the two fighters and vocally demanding their money back.
Yet Ali earned the same sum for both events. (In time, the 'Thrilla in Manilla' may have added more value to the Ali brand.)
Though little known elsewhere, Inoki was ubiquitous in his native land. As famous in Japan as Ali was in America. The fight was envisioned as a kind of prototype for Mixed Martial Arts.
The event was dubbed a farce by all who had the misfortune to see it.
Inoki decided that Ali wouldn't be able to hit him if he stayed on the ground the whole time. Inoki began the fight by diving at Ali feet first. After that he settled on the ground, aiming kicks at Ali's legs.
Ali, for his part, grew frustrated, and spent the fight avoiding the swipes from his opponent's legs and demanding that he get to his feet. He screamed that Inoki was a "coward".
It wasn't until the 7th round that Ali was able to throw his first punch.
In the final few rounds, the crowd began pelting their rubbish at the two combatants.
In total, he threw six punches in 15 rounds. Inoki scored three more points overall but was docked for fouls. He was docked enough for the bout to be called a "draw".
Hannigan described the fight on the Last Word tonight.
An absolute shameful debacle for Ali. The wrestler just lay on the floor, kicking Ali on the legs so hard that he gave him blood clots and Ali stood there shouting at him to get up an fight. In the end, the Japanese crowd showered the two of them with rubbish.
Who knows whether the vaguely possible Mayweather-McGregor scrap would descend to similar levels of farce. There is no indication that any hybrid rules have been drawn up. Though, the idea that McGregor could match up with Mayweather in a boxing ring seems utterly ludicrous.
According to Hannigan, the chief similarity between the Ali-Inoki fight and the Mayweather-McGregor talk is that money is the driving force in both instances.
When we look at the numbers, there are enough stupid people out there to fork over pay-per-view (money) every couple of months for WWE. And you'd think they will line up to purchase McGregor versus Mayweather in some hybrid abomination of rules.
Hannigan, always unafraid of tweaking the noses of UFC fanatics, predicted that the build-up to such a fight would be "insufferable".
Listen to the interview from 25:00 here.
