He'd just call Floyd a coward for not fighting him in MMA now.

Would Conor's ego allow him to be the clear B-side in a fight tho?

15M guarantee vs 100M guarantee for Floyd is a pretty bad deal given that he is probably a bigger PPV star than Floyd is right now.

There is no way Conor would agree to that split. Nor should he.

Yes, because the bolded is incorrect. If Floyd came back and fought GGG at 154 (a stupid fight, but that's irrelevant), it would sell at least 3M PPVs.

Meh, if Floyd offered him $15M plus 20% of the PPV, he would be bat**** not to take it. Conor/Floyd probably sells in the neighborhood of 1.5-2M PPVs depending on how seriously the media treats it, and that's a lot of red panties.

Well that's certainly the argument Floyd's camp would make

Bomani was talking about how much Floyd would throw that in Conor's face in leadup to the fight re: trash talk.

But Floyd isn't going to fight GGG or anyone else that would be a credible fight.

He is done defending his 0 and just wants an easy fight. Any other easy fight is going to be a box office flop (see Berto)

CM has done around 1.5 buys on avg his last 4 fights vs 3 guys that weren't PPV stars at all. That is more than Floyd did vs anyone but Canelo or Manny in recent memory. Both Maidana fights, Ortiz, Guerrero were all well below what CM has done.

And then really, I think after Floyd/Manny that the public has just cooled on both of them. Manny has had terrible PPV #'s since then.

We can debate who is the bigger draw (right now I'd say CM) but 7/1 ratio on the purse is definitely way out of whack and I doubt CM would go for anything like that.

UFC PPVs are easier to sell than boxing PPVs tho. In boxing you get one fight and an undercard of fighters you've never heard of (save for GGG/Chocolatito sometimes), with UFC cards you almost always (lol 208) get a solid main card.

Yeah, the main event sells the fight in both cases, but it's a lot easier to part with $60 when you know you're getting five fights you can at least be interested in than when you're getting one. For that reason, the straight up comparison is flukey.

More to the point, Floyd's "lack" of drawing power, such as it is, is sort of proven false by this whole discussion. We aren't talking about Conor vs. Amir Khan here. There's only one name that comes up when we talk about cross overs, and it's not without reason. The public will absolutely lose their **** (and their cash) for Floyd if they think he has a legit chance to get beat (i.e. GGG, which I agree isn't happening ever). Yeah, Floyd may actually be retired now, but people still want to see him get beat, and ironically, the older he gets, the more people will believe it could happen.

Floyd, assbag though he is, actually brought up the correct point on FT when he said "If you've made $10m, I will give you $20M. If you've made $8M, I'll give you $16M" and so on. The money in boxing is just way higher than in MMA because the UFC is this ubiquitous money vacuum. It's laughable to compare the two sports in that aspect. To be sure boxing promoters are thieves themselves, but Conor can take a 7:1 B-side split and still make more than his entire UFC career to date if the fight eclipses 2M or so.

Manny/Floyd sold 4.4M buys and Manny made $160M+ on 40%. If this fight does half and Conor gets only 20%, he makes $20M or more for taking less of a (physical) beating. Easy work

UFC PPV's sans Conor/Ronda haven't been selling compared to cards with them on it. We're talking like 1.5M vs about 4-500k.

So CM's average PPV #'s are around 3-4x higher than a regular UFC card. Sure he is getting some benefit from the UFC brand, but he is doing much, much better than the average UFC card.

Speaking of Conor/Amir Khan, I do think if CM decided to box someone like him that they could probably bring in 1.5M in PPV. CM/Floyd would generate a lot more but CM just boxing another name would also do very well because of his drawing power. So maybe he goes that route.

Tough to say how long it will last, but I think you underestimate how much intrigue there is around CM right now.

CM has to choose his boxing path very carefully though obviously, because he can likely only do it once. After that the novelty wears off. Unless they rig it so they can do a 2nd fight.

Oh no, I 100% believe Conor is selling, but I think you let him promote his own fights and don't give him the benefits of anyone else exempt some SBG guys on the card (Mayweather usually has TMT guys on his cards) and his numbers are going to drop a bit. That's not a knock on Conor, it's just a difference in the businesses.

The cliff's here is that I agree with your point if it's "Conor's worth more than $15M and points" but I still think he could take it and be "justified" because the UFC underpays it's fighters so much.

I can't imagine Conor entertains the fight unless it's 30 mil+ basically guaranteed with points. Meaning a floor of 30mil with a ceiling of ~70+.

I assumed the UFC had to wet it's beak as well but that all seems murky now.

Funny thing re: Conor and PPV numbers that I have no ****ing clue how to explain:

UFC 202: Conor/Nate II
Rumble/Glover & Cowboy/Story



UFC 205: Conor/Alvarez
Woodley/Wonderboy & JJ/KK



Uhhh help?

My only guess:

I think if Conor was to step into the boxing ring, he probably doesn't need Floyd to get 1M+ buys. Someone like Khan could take an easy 10M payday where CM gets 50-60.

So to say "I'll give you X because you've only made Y" doesn't really work because if he were to ever "break free" from the UFC then his market value in boxing would be far greater than what Floyd is offering. Atleast for 1 fight until people realized it was a joke.

Also, this is a nitpick but I don't really buy the less physically taxing stuff. If he got into a boxing ring and the other guy was motivated and wanted to prove a point, he could get hurt pretty bad for 12 rds without getting kO'd. He is certainly taking a major risk stepping out of his comfort zone. Yeah, it probably won't hurt his career much but who knows? He could get badly embarrassed and it could stick with him forever.

Can you imagine the fooking gate at the 02 for Conor vs. Khan.

I don't think Khan takes such a clear B-siding there, but even still. Conor could have a better fight (in which he still gets made bitch of) and print money with no Floyd.

Exactly.

Why Floyd's logic on purse split doesn't work. He is comparing CM in the UFC vs outside of it. But once he is outside, it is a whole new world.

The issue is that unless Conor goes to court, the UFC owns his soul for at least a few more fights.

(how many fights does he have left on his deal?)

And UFC would have no incentive to see Conor get his ass kicked by any boxer.

I do wonder if in the future they don't throw all their marketing weight at a fighter though. Stars make the big money in combat sports but UFC doesn't have much incentive to help certain individuals get bigger than the brand itself.

I think they want guys in the GSP/Bones range ideally. Very popular, but they still need UFC.

There's the championship clause which lets them have first right to refusal in perpetuity if he has a belt afaik.

Bellator did as well and chose to let Eddie walk, as an example.

Meh, I don't think Floyd's logic is very good there. What current boxers are going to generate enough interest for Floyd to fight and get the PPV numbers (and attention) that he wants? His fight against Pacquiao did huge numbers, but it was also a huge letdown. His last fight against Berto was embarrassing by his standards. A fight against GGG would make a killing, but seems highly unlikely.

You're right that people will pay for the chance to see him lose, but at this point I think he needs an exciting/interesting opponent for casual fan to think that's a possibility, even if it means he's fighting someone that has little chance of winning.

I think he needs Conor more than he wants to admit, and I think he should be willing to pay up more than he typically would for a fighter who has only made x dollars in the past. Conor might get crushed, but there's no doubt that he would be responsible for a ton of people paying to see that fight.

Conor does need him, though.

Getting clowned by PBF is ok since everyone gets clowned by him. Getting destroyed as badly by a much lesser fighter is not ideal for his image

100-15 is obv absurd but it seems like just an extreme bargaining position, they'll probably settle at something like 25+%% with Conor making 50M when it's all said and done

Jesus Christ, really? You already know what I'm going to say but expand the damn Ali Act like yesterday.

Does Conor really need him? He's selling big money fights and in the prime of his career.

Floyd is the 1 who wants biggest reward with no risk, which CM can provide him that no one else can.

Conor is starting a family. He wants to be set for life, his first goal is to get over 100 million. This fight can get him there and with less risk than a UFC fight.

I don't think Dana has ever supported it in public if it is just a boxing match.

He obviously knows CM would get ruined.

Anderson Silva wanted to box RJJ around 2010 I remember and UFC had no interest in that. Granted RJJ/Anderson probably wouldn't even make much $ at that time.