Talks of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Conor McGregor fighting boxing great Floyd Mayweather have taken the mainstream media by storm. Many have been talking about the fantasy match-up as if it has already been announced. Of course, nothing has materialized.
While the mainstream audience is eating the hype up, hardcore fans aren’t amused. A lot of fight purists would rather see McGregor defend his lightweight title than entertain a boxing match.
MMAJunkie interviewed four fighters on the main card of Sunday night’s (Jan. 15) UFC Fight Night card in Phoenix. Those fighters were Ben Saunders, Court McGee, Joe Lauzon, and Marcin Held. They were all asked if they wanted to see McGregor and Mayweather compete in a boxing bout.
“Killa B” said he doesn’t mind “Notorious” dabbling in the world of boxing, but he’d like to see him relinquish the title if he goes that route:
“On a personal level, I wanna see him defend the title. If he goes over to boxing, then more power to him. I’ll watch it just like you said, but I would hope that he would respect the sport enough to give his title away or up for grabs, so there’s no more interim this. And then if you choose to come back, you choose to come back. Just like if Georges St. Pierre comes back, you fight for the title. It would be an immediate match for that.”
Lauzon isn’t optimistic about McGregor’s chances inside a boxing ring against “Money.”
“I don’t think it would be super competitive, honestly. I think Floyd is night and day ahead of Conor in boxing just the way Conor’s night and day ahead of Floyd in jiu-jitsu and MMA and grappling and wrestling.”
McGee admitted he would tune in to see the bout.
“I mean of course I would watch it. I mean, I don’t know who wouldn’t watch it.”
You can count Held in as another viewer.
“Of course I would like to see this.”
