Floyd v MMA II would be completely irrelevant to boxing.
You’ve probably seen the articles by now. Undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has called out Floyd Mayweather Jr for a boxing match and Floyd is entertaining the idea. Given both that the for now retired all time great is on the record that he plans on coming back for a tune up before rematching Manny Pacquiao next year and that he’s used a UFC star for an easy pay day before, I guess it is a plausible scenario we could see play out in early 2019.
Here’s the thing though. It won’t happen, or at least it probably won’t. I said as much about the potential fight with Conor McGregor, sure, but this time it makes little sense for the UFC to do it. For one, Mayweather-Khabib won’t sell like May-Mac did. It’d sell pretty well I am sure, but it won’t be the most lucrative fight of all time. Khabib isn’t the self promoter that Conor is, nor is he as big of a built in star even if he is more one of now than ever.
Two, despite his rapidly growing fame for dominating McGregor and the post-fight melee, he stands no chance with Floyd. If you put on the right color sunglasses, maybe you could see an all time elite MMA striker with great athleticism and power like the Irishman catching an aging boxing elite not taking the fight seriously with the right shot. It requires some squinting and mental contortion, but you can get there if you try. Khabib Nurmagomedov is not a great MMA striker though; he’s not even a particularly good one. The Russian is a grappler. Without that minute chance of victory, Dana White can’t put his guy in there.
Three, I don’t think the UFC would do it again on credibility alone. Even though it isn’t really fair to expect even the best MMA fighters to be able to box with world class boxers, public perception isn’t as nuanced as all that. Dana White knows that he can’t keep sending in his best guys to lose boxing matches against Floyd. Once was harmless, but twice would begin to diminish the UFC brand a bit. No one in the organization is going to want to go ahead and risk that for 2 million buys that they have to split when they can go ahead and break a million with Khabib’s next defense in the octagon anyway.
More important than whether or not the fight will happen, however, is the fact that it doesn’t matter if it does at all. Let me repeat that. It doesn’t matter whether or not Floyd Mayweather fights Khabib Nurmagomedov. Floyd is not an active fighter. If he fights another cross sport freak show bout, it will not have a positive or negative impact on boxing. It will be a net neutral. Nothing will be gained or lost for the sport. He’s not coming back to fight Errol Spence Jr, Terence Crawford, or any other top fighter in their prime either way.
Finally, understand that to get worked up about it is to promote it. Every time a boxing fan throws a fit about the potential fight on a message board, in the comments somewhere, or on social media, he/she is promoting the idea. Since we’re talking about an MMA fighter anyway, PrideFC used to do this back in its heyday in Japan. The more people that get up in arms about a side show fight, the more people that know about it and therefore the more people that can buy it. There are only two appropriate responses to a potential matchup like this. If you think it is fun, then have a laugh and get excited. If you don’t like it, just shrug your shoulders and move on with your day. Reacting any larger just makes the event bigger.
You’re not going to find every little he said, she said about this potential fight here at S8C like you will at other outlets. This site remains entirely independent; no corporate overlord is forcing the gossip articles to drive clicks here. If I think it is going to get booked, I’ll post about it. If it does, I’ll cover it like any other fight that people might be interested. Until then, this is all we’ve got here. There is too much actual content to go over to worry about that click bait nonsense.
