Terence Crawford is pushing back on Conor McGregor’s claims that he turned down a $200 million offer to fight “The Notorious” in boxing and MMA, but his current comments don’t quite line up with what he said about the fight two years ago.
According to McGregor, Saudi boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh was trying to set up a two-fight $200 million deal where he and “Bud” would compete in both combat sports. A lot of MMA fighters have crossed over into boxing, but it’s much rarer for boxers to cross over into MMA. It didn’t work out well for James Toney, although Ray Mercer did KO former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in 2009.
As Crawford saw it, there were some talks but an offer never came in.
“That was a lie. It was cap,” Crawford said on the Ariel Helwani Show. “It wasn’t never no $200 million offer. Now they asked me what I do, and I told them. I said, ‘Man, you ain’t about to be kicking on me, Conor.’ Because we was on FaceTime, and I did tell them that. But they didn’t say, ‘Hey, you got $200 million [if] you fight ’em in boxing and fight them in MMA.’ That was never the case.”
“If it was just said to me, then I could say it was a offer. But if if nothing is previewed to me, I can’t say what is what. He’s making up numbers, in my head.”
According to McGregor, Saudi boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh was trying to set up a two-fight $200 million deal where he and “Bud” would compete in both combat sports. A lot of MMA fighters have crossed over into boxing, but it’s much rarer for boxers to cross over into MMA. It didn’t work out well for James Toney, although Ray Mercer did KO former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in 2009.
As Crawford saw it, there were some talks but an offer never came in.
“That was a lie. It was cap,” Crawford said on the Ariel Helwani Show. “It wasn’t never no $200 million offer. Now they asked me what I do, and I told them. I said, ‘Man, you ain’t about to be kicking on me, Conor.’ Because we was on FaceTime, and I did tell them that. But they didn’t say, ‘Hey, you got $200 million [if] you fight ’em in boxing and fight them in MMA.’ That was never the case.”
“If it was just said to me, then I could say it was a offer. But if if nothing is previewed to me, I can’t say what is what. He’s making up numbers, in my head.”
3 months ago
