When Oscar de la Hoya speaks the boxing world listens. And when he said the potential match-up between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor could be an event from which boxing never recovers, people listened.
Even Mayweather himself listened. While he didn't respond directly to De La Hoya's comments, the undefeated boxer did give his thoughts on the potential fight and how McGregor is, in his opinion, a worthy opponent.
"He’s a hell of a stand-up fighter. I can’t take that away from him," Mayweather said on DJ Whoo Kid's Sirius XM radio show. "Only time McGregor has been defeated was when he was on the ground. When he was standing up, he always was victorious. He’s a power puncher. He’s a tough competitor."
There's no denying that a fight between Mayweather and McGregor would be profitable. Mayweather wouldn't consider a fight that wasn't just that. The question is would this matchup be a fight at all?
Mayweather certainly seems to think so. But the only way to find out is if the two men actually step into a ring together. From the way Mayweather is talking it is beginning to look like an inevitability, especially now that McGregor has signed his end of the deal with the UFC.
"Once I get back to Las Vegas, to my hub, we’ll find out how everything plays out," Mayweather said. "We’ll sit down and see what we can come up with and hopefully the McGregor fight can be made.
"We didn't agree yet. Everything takes time, we’ll just see."
