Conor McGregor: I would win a boxing rematch with Floyd Mayweather

Conor McGregor understands that Floyd Mayweather Jr. bested him in their first match, but he thinks he could turn the tables in a rematch. While he would like Floyd to fight MMA, he knows that a rematch is likely to happen in a boxing ring. And at a Q&A session in Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo venue, he discussed what would happen in a possible second go-around (via MMA Fighting):

“What’s sickening me is that the little motherf—ker is retired now. I know if I went another go with him, under boxing rules, I’d get that win. I know that. I know by the feeling of him in the first fight. He had to change his whole approach. He fought completely different than he ever fought. He couldn’t figure out what I was doing early on.

“With the lessons I learned from that first fight, if I had another go now, I’d get him. At the same time, he’s 50-0 and he’s getting on, I’m not gonna start calling him out. I’m happy to see a fighter (do well).”

McGregor made it clear that he wasn’t going to ask for a rematch. But he doesn’t discount the possibility of it happening, due to one factor – Mayweather’s finances:

“Let’s see how he handles this round of money. I might get the phone call again and we may do it again.”

…

“Fair play to him, it’s some purchase, a $26 million mansion. I’m thinking, the tax bill of this last fight, the tax bill off his previous bill, and then his good investments, I think I could be getting a call anytime soon to go again and I f—king want to.”

McGregor went on to admit that he accepts the defeat, knowing Floyd got the best of him under boxing rules:

“I got beat. I got beat under that rule set. I’m not going to start giving off like that. I accepted the rules, and I was beat in the rules. Make no mistake, every time I took his back in that f—king fight and the referee separated us, in a real fight it’s done right there. That was the part for me that I had to get over the most.

“I almost feel like I sold myself out. I put so many skills and so many shots in my back pocket for a pay check and big event and that’s been messing with my head a little bit.”

The UFC lightweight champion is currently weighing his options as to what he’ll do next.