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Louise Thomas
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Boxing superstar Terence Crawford revealed he turned down a deal worth “hundreds of millions” for two fights against UFC legend Conor McGregor.
Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, offered the combat sport greats a two-fight agreement – with one in boxing and the other in MMA.
McGregor has dabbled in boxing in the past, suffering a 10th-round TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather back in 2017 in a fight that earned him more than $100m, and is generally regarded as one of UFC’s greatest strikers of all-time.
Crawford has a background in wrestling but has never competed in an MMA bout and the undefeated, four-weight boxing world champion says he wasn’t about to step into the Octagon against the Irishman.
“I told Conor, ‘Hell no’,” Crawford said in an interview with Bernie Tha Boxer on YouTube. “They called me and they offered me the fight and me and Conor got on the phone and started politicking to try and figure something out.
“And I told him, ‘Man I ain’t getting into no f****** Octagon with you so you can be kicking me and elbowing me and s***’. He started laughing and he said ‘Man, I respect it. You respect my sport just like I respect your sport and you understand that if you get in an Octagon you’re going to be at a disadvantage. Just like if I get into the boxing ring with you, I’m going to be at a disadvantage’.
“But he was like, ‘We will make a s*** ton of money’. I said, ‘Yeah, sometimes it ain’t about the money, I can make money but you ain’t about to be kicking me, dude’. Kicks and elbows man that s*** ain’t no joke.”
The 37-year-old is arguably the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, although he is currently at No 2 behind Naoya Inoue in The Independent’s latest rankings, and is one of just three boxers to have been an undisputed champion in two different weight classes.
In his last fight, Crawford won the WBA super welterweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Israil Madrimov and has now been made the mandatory challenger for WBO and WBC champion Sebastian Fundora’s belts. He has also been targeting a sismic showdown with Canelo Alvarez although negotiations appear to have stalled for that fight.
McGregor was due to return to the Octagon at UFC 303 back in June against Michael Chandler but a toe injury for the Irishman caused the bout to be cancelled and Chandler has since moved on to a fight against Charles Oliveira at UFC 309.
‘Notorious’ will now allegedly end his four-year UFC hiatus next year instead and although it has not been confirmed who he will face, the 36-year-old recently claimed he would like to fight UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.
In the meantime, he confirmed Crawford’s account of events about the proposed crossover fights on a live stream with Duelbits.
“[I told Crawford] They are asking for a fight,” McGregor said. “It’s going to be hundreds of millions on the line. What’s up? He said, ‘I don’t want to take a kick.’ You got to respect that.
“Crawford is very slick, he also has a wrestling background pedigree. We were talking back and forth about a two-fight deal.”
