Dana White has revealed he doubts that Floyd Mayweather could face Conor McGregor in the Octagon in this year after their first fight in last year.
Speaking to media, the UFC president said he doesn’t know yet about the rematch but he keeps trying to put both men in the sport.
“I don’t know, we’ll find out. I’m interested. Obviously he’s interested, and the last time we were both interested you saw what happened. Possibly Conor. I know Conor wants it.” White said.
Asked about UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who has a potential training partner for Mayweather, White said that the retired professional boxer needs a long time to be mixed martial artist in the UFC.
“Obviously he’s a very talented guy but as far as the wrestling, nobody is going to learn how to wrestle in six to eight weeks. Years. It takes years of wrestling, martial arts, and combat sports training to be mixed martial artist. Years.” White said.
“He’s a defensive master with his hands, doing all this stuff. When, somebody double legs you and drops you in your head, he doesn’t have the defense for that. Yeah, no.” the 48-year-old American added.
Floyd Mayweather says he wants to fight at 145 pounds in the MMA. (Source:www.abs-cbn.news.com)
Mayweather has started training for MMA debut recently and he said that he would love the chance to rematch McGregor and to drop back down to 145 pounds, but the 41-year-old man preferred at the same time.
“I started training already. Not the physical part, endurance, as far as moving around. So far, I’ve started running.” Mayweather said.
“I’m thinking about fighting in the MMA, I’ve thought about it. I started training in Miami. I look forward to fighting probably by the end of the year. We don’t know right now it’s a 50-50 chance, not a hundred percent but we’ve started training.
“I can’t say right now. I can’t really say how things are going to play out. I’m a numbers man. I’m all about the numbers.
“Conor McGregor, tough, vicious competitor. Of course, just like he feels he got dynamite hands with the four-ounce gloves on, I feel I like I got dynamite power with the four-ounce gloves on.
“It’d be hard for me and Conor to fight, because if I was to fight in the MMA, I would have to fight at 145 pounds. In MMA it would be totally different.” Mayweather added.