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28th Mar 2017

Floyd Mayweather’s response to Conor McGregor’s threat has some major flaws

He actually tried to take the high road

Ben Kiely

Not even Floyd Mayweather really believes what Floyd Mayweather said about Floyd Mayweather.

You’ve got to hand it to Conor McGregor and Mayweather, they’re doing a hell of a job selling a fight that is literally the easiest sell in the world, and it hasn’t even been booked yet.

Who wouldn’t watch two of the world’s biggest combat sports stars slug it out in a crossover megafight spectacle with a greater purse at stake than the GDP of Tuvalu? Anyone who was on the fence about buying the PPV would probably be convinced by McGregor screaming that he would knock ‘Money’ out and take over the world of boxing recently.

“Trust me, I’m going to stop Floyd. You’re all going to eat your words. The whole world is going to eat their words. We’re getting close don’t worry about it. You’ll hear about it. I am boxing!”

Strong words like that would warrant an even stronger response, right?

Well, seemingly not. Rather than fire back all guns blazing, Mayweather gave a fairly reserved response to McGregor’s claim to FightHype. He also applauded both McGregor and UFC president Dana White for doing their bit to generate some hype around the fantasy fight and keep the conversation going.

“I feel like he’s entitled to feel the way he wants to feel. Only thing you can do is respect that.”

“I just want to say, Dana White, I was overseas when they told me what you said. I wanna say, good work Dana White. Conor McGregor, they said you finally opened your mouth and you’re back to talking shit and I say that’s cool too.”

Then he dropped the line that a lot of people would take issue with.

“With me, it is what it is. If I can’t do nothing, everybody knows I can fight, if I can’t do nothing else. But when I’m not in the ring, I’m a gentleman. Outside the ring, I’m a gentleman.”

Ah gentleman outside the ring? Generally speaking, gentlemen don’t really have a documented history of domestic violence now, do they? In 2012, Mayweather served two months in jail after pleading guilty to domestic abuse.