Floyd Mayweather: ‘I Feel Like I Owe Fans’ for Disappointing Manny Pacquiao Fight
Floyd Mayweather told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday that he feels like he owes boxing fans for his disappointing fight against Manny Pacquiao.
“At the pace right now that we’re going, [the Conor McGregor fight is] going to be bigger than the Pacquiao fight,” Mayweather said. “I’ve talked about this before: I feel like I owe the fans since me and Pacquiao didn’t give the fans a blockbuster. Me and McGregor should give the fans a blockbuster.”
The “Fight of the Century” between Mayweather and Pacquiao was almost six years in the making. It still holds a number of financial records in boxing, generating over $400 million from 4.6 million pay-per-views and an additional $72.2 million from ticket sales. And yet, despite those figures, the fight failed to come close to expectations. To write that wrong, Mayweather plans to go “straight ahead” against McGregor rather than take his time like he usually does because “the fans deserve it.”
If the McGregor fight is trending where Mayweather expects it to, he could also make significantly more money than he did from the Pacquiao fight. While his payout was believed to be at least $220 million for his unanimous victory in 2015, Mayweather told Kimmel that he could make well over $300 million whether he wins or loses against McGregor.
“$350 million,” Mayweather said. “Yes. [Money] is cool. It’s cool.”
As for a potential UFC fight against McGregor, Mayweather said he’s focused only on Aug. 26 for now. “Once we get past August 26th,” he said, “then we can talk about other things.”