Manny Pacquiao Says He’s Willing to Fight Conor McGregor; Dana White Responds

There’s been a lot of talk about a supposed boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and UFC star Conor McGregor.  Another person who tried to coax Mayweather out of retirement is WBO Welterweight champion world Manny Pacquaio.  Since the fight between Mayweather and McGregor looks unlikely to materialize, Pacquiao is now interested in fighting McGregor.

“I don’t know if they are taking it seriously. It’s on the news but I don’t know if it will happen,” Pacquiao told Fox Sports News 500 in an exclusive interview.  “If McGregor will fight me in boxing, why not? But not in MMA. MMA is much different than boxing.”

“The fight can be at the 140-pound weight division. My normal weight when I’m not on training is just 141 or 142 pounds,” Pacquiao said.

Asked whether he thought McGregor could last 12 rounds with him, Pacquiao said: “I’m sure he will be moving around.

Soon after news of Pacquiao’s interest in fighting McGregor broke, his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, revealed that he would instruct company president Todd duBoef to call UFC chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein to discuss a possible bout.  UFC president Dana White, however, is not fond of Arum and shut it down.

“Listen, I love Manny Pacquiao,” White told Yahoo Sport’s Kevin Iole. “But I don’t love Bob Arum. “You can tell Arum to save his money and not make any calls over here because we aren’t doing business with him.”

It should also be noted that Mayweather’s dislike of Arum is one of the reasons his fight with Pacquiao took so long to happen.