Conor McGregor Says 'Negotiations Are Underway For Mayweather UFC Fight'

Connor McGregor was in New York City last night for the seventh annual Best Of Ireland Gala Dinner. Given that he's almost certainly the best of Ireland, it wouldn't have been much of an event without him.

The event, which honoured the MMA fighter, was also a charity bash to raise funds for Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, in Ireland. And after a spontaneous donation by McGregor himself, he revealed that over $800,000 had been raised for both the hospital and the Children's Medical Research Foundation.

Yet while his generous side was very much on show at the event, so was his fighting talk.

McGregor said: "I'm currently in negotiations to face my next opponent and we have many options.

"There's the current interim lightweight champion [Tony Ferguson], there's an undefeated Dagestani [Khabib Nurmagomedov], maybe a big Russian event, there's obviously the [Nate] Diaz trilogy, of course the Mayweather fight is there.

"There's many options. So we're just at the table at the moment. Time's is good, life is good."

In another video when asked if he thought that Floyd Mayweather should fight on his terms - ie UFC, not boxing - McGregor said: "He should. I went into his game, he should come into mine."

Later, as he exited the venue at the end of the awards, a noticeably more rowdy McGregor emerged holding the award he had received for his continuing charitable work with children's hospitals in his home country.

As photographers clambered around him, someone screamed: "Fuck Mayweather," to which McGregor responded by screaming what sounds like "Fuck the Mayweathers."

It was 26 August last year that McGregor stepped into the ring to fight the undefeated boxer, who had come out of retirement specifically for the match.

While people praised McGregor's performance in a sport that's not his own, he was nonetheless defeated in the 10th round with a technical knockout. The result extended Mayweather's undefeated run to 50-0.

The boxer's guaranteed disclosed paycheck for the bout was $100 million while McGregor's was $30 million, but estimates are that Mayweather reportedly earned more than $300 million and McGregor over $100 million. Not bad for a night's work.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Connor McGregor, Boxing, UFC, mayweather

Mischa Pearlmen

Mischa is a freelance journalist usually based in either New York or London. He has written for Kerrang!, Record Collector, NME, the New York Observer and FLOOD magazine, among others. Contact him at [email protected]