Floyd Mayweather’s camp reacts to news of Conor McGregor’s boxing license

Wednesday evening, the MMA community learned that UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor had received his boxing license in California, but had been denied a boxing license in Nevada due to the fact that he has not proven his qualifications as a boxer.

Of course McGregor receiving a license to box in California added fuel to the fires of speculation regarding a potential boxing superfight with undefeated boxing icon Floyd Mayweather. Earlier this year, McGregor and Mayweather were rumored to be fighting close to the end of 2017 after McGregor was pulled from his UFC 200 scrap against Nate Diaz for refusing to fulfill his media obligations.

While UFC President Dana White explained that a boxing match between McGregor and Mayweather was certainly a tough one given the obstacles negotiations would have to work around, fight fans continued to hold out hope for a McGregor-Mayweather boxing match.

Now, on the heels of McGregor receiving his license to box in California, Floyd Mayweather’s rep has spoken to ESPN about the potential fight:

“It’s all a game. It’s all a calculated effort to gain more fans,” Ellerbe told ESPN. “He got a boxing license. Congratulations to him. Conor McGregor can say anything he wants to but he has a boss and his name is Dana White. He is under contract to the UFC and if he wanted to fight Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match he can’t because his bosses wouldn’t allow that to happen.

“The brass (new owners WME-IMG) who recently purchased the UFC are very smart people and they would never — and put this in bold caps — let him step into a boxing ring with Floyd Mayweather because everyone knows what the outcome would be. He would get his ass beat from pillar to post.”

He continued:

“At the end of the day, he’s under contract with the UFC,” Ellerbe said. “He’s told what to do. He’s an employee. He’s done a masterful con job to try to trick people that he could actually pull this off. It’s another creative way to create more interest. Nobody is mad but it’s a con job trying to make people think this is real and even mentioning him and TBE (The Best Ever, Mayweather’s nickname) in the same breath is disrespectful, completely disrespectful. Isn’t this the same guy who tapped out three fights ago?

“The con game is over. Go out there and worry about dominating the UFC because three fights ago he lost, he was quitting. You couldn’t even mention the word quit with Floyd Mayweather. And, like I said, (McGregor) can’t do anything without the UFC’s approval. There’s no way (WME-IMG) spent all that money so they can get their biggest star killed. It would never happen. If they want to get him killed put him in there in a boxing match.”