By: Sean Crose
After being decisively beaten by pound for pound great Floyd Mayweather in August, UFC star Conor McGregor now says that he would beat the 50-0 Mayweather in a boxing rematch. “What’s sickening me,” McGregor said during a question and answer session in Scotland “is that the little motherfucker is retired now.” McGregor made it clear that, should he fight Mayweather again, he’d enter the ring having learned from his mistakes. “With the lessons I learned from that first fight,” he said, “if I had another go now, I’d get him.”
McGregor may have been stopped by Mayweather in the 10th round of their blockbuster match on August 26th in Vegas, but, a mere month later, the Irishman is showing nothing can stop his mouth. Although he made it clear he’s not going to call the 40 year old Mayweather out, McGregor left the door open for a second go-round in the ring. “I might get the phone call again and we may do it again,” he said. McGregor made it clear he thinks there’s a chance of a rematch because of the way Mayweather goes through money.
“I think I could be getting a call anytime soon to go again,” he claimed, “and I fucking want to.” While he admitted that he outright lost to Mayweather this past summer McGregor is a man with a nearly unhealthy abundance of confidence. It’s also obvious that the fighter hates to lose. After being bested by fellow UFC fighter Nate Diaz in March of 2017, McGregor was determined to come back and win a rematch – which he did, albeit by the slimmest of margins, the following summer. Now it’s the Mayweather fight which appears to be lodged in McGregor’s head.
“I almost feel like I sold myself out,” he recalled, referring to the fact that he willingly chose to face Mayweather in a ring although he himself had never boxed professionally before. “I put so many skills and so many shots in my back pocket for a pay check and big event,” he added, “and that’s been messing with my head a little bit.” Needless to say, McGregor sill has plenty of options available to him in his home sport of MMA. “Of course,” he said, “the Nate Diaz trilogy fight is there.” He mentioned sparring rival Paulie Malignaggi as being a possible opponent, as well, although McGregor claimed he’d want that fight to go down in an MMA octagon rather than in a boxing ring.