Floyd Mayweather Says He Offered Conor McGregor $15 Million, PPV Points for Boxing Match

Shortly after he become lightweight champion at UFC 205, Conor McGregor said he would need $100 million to face pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match.

“Money” claims he recently made a counter offer to McGregor. And while it wasn’t in the $100 million ballpark -- that’s Mayweather territory, according to the man himself -- it was an impressive figure nonetheless.

“We tried to make the Conor McGregor fight,” Mayweather said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Wednesday. “They know what my number is. My number was a guaranteed $100 million. That was my number. We’re the A-side. I don’t know how much money Conor McGregor has made. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t even made $10 million in an MMA bout. We are willing to give him $15 million and then we could talk about splitting the percentage, the back end percentage on pay-per-view.”

McGregor earned a disclosed $3 million payday for his victory over Nate Diaz at UFC 202 in August. Salaries from UFC 205, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City, were not released. The Dublin native recently received a boxing license in California but remains under contract with the UFC, which means the Las Vegas-based organization has exclusive rights to promote his fights.

“The Notorious” Irishman has already said that he plans to take an extended period of time off as he awaits the birth of his first child with girlfriend Dee Devlin. Mayweather, meanwhile, retired following a unanimous decision victory over Andre Berto in September 2015. If anything would convince him to lace up the gloves again, it would be a showdown with McGregor.

“The only thing that I’m probably interested in is probably the Conor McGregor fight,” Mayweather said. “I’m a business man and it makes more business sense.”

With Ronda Rousey’s future in doubt and her profile tarnished following back-to-back blowout defeats, McGregor is now unquestionably MMA’s brightest star. While a meeting with Mayweather still seems highly unlikely, rumors will continue to persist as long as both men encourage such talk.

“Conor McGregor keep telling everybody he wants the fight -- let’s make it happen,” Mayweather said.