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Floyd Mayweather on Conor McGregor's taunt: He's a joke

Floyd Mayweather Jr. trains for his fight against Manny Pacquiao on May 2. (Getty)

When UFC fighter Conor McGregor said earlier this week he would “kill” boxing’s Floyd Mayweather in less than 30 seconds, more than a few people wrote it off as hyperbole – a bit of gamesmanship on the part of the vocal Irishman.

Mayweather once famously said, “I don’t know who he is,” when asked about the UFC's Ronda Rousey. But apparently Mayweather heard McGregor’s jawing loud and clear – and Mayweather thinks he's a 'joke'.

According to the report, Mayweather scoffed at McGregor’s taunts, saying, “I don’t take that dude seriously. He is just trying to get publicity.”

And it worked.

Mayweather is two weeks out from the biggest fight of his career against Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in Las Vegas, and apparently McGregor’s threats hit a bit harder than when Rousey said she could beat the pound-for-pound king in the past.

Conor McGregor plays the crowd before the UFC 179 weigh-in. (Getty)
Conor McGregor plays the crowd before the UFC 179 weigh-in. (Getty)

“I wouldn’t even stand up, I wouldn’t even be anywhere near him,” Rousey said to Power 106 FM (Los Angeles) in March. “I would just do like a little army crawl over there, and he would have to run away. I would just be skittering after him like the one dude in Bloodsport that was doing the whole monkey crawl fight system. I would do that. I would just bear crawl over there, too low for him to hit me, and I’d tackle him down.

“I spent a lot of time [on the ground], and I doubt that he does.”

That is where the disconnect will always rest with these discussions: we are talking about two different sports. Mayweather will never fight McGregor, and Mayweather will certainly never fight Rousey, but it's fodder for fans to debate.

And just when you think the monthly callouts and fantasy matchmaking have run their course, here comes Conor McGregor, turning the spotlight on him (to a degree) two weeks before the biggest fight in boxing history.

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