Terence Crawford says he was offered a fight by Conor McGregor in a crossover match in the octagon, but he turned it down.
He spoke to the former UFC champion McGregor, 36, on the phone and told him he wouldn’t do it because he didn’t want to be kicked or elbowed. Crawford says McGregor tried to convince to take the fight, telling him that they could make a “ton of money”, but he wasn’t interesed.
McGregor hasn’t competed in MMA since 2021. He lost his last two fights in the octagon and hasn’t won a match since 2020. According to Celebrity Net Worth, McGregor’s fortune is estimated at $200 million. He made a lot of money for his boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017, which pulled in a total of 5.3 million PPV buys worldwide.
McGregor’s popularity has dimmed, but a match between and Crawford would still make money due to the fan bases of the two fighters.
Crawford, 37, is coming off a narrow 12-round unanimous decision win over WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. He did not perform well in his debut at 154 against Madrimov, showing a combination of age, lack of power, and ring rust. The only reason Crawford won the fight was Madrimov fighting passively down the stretch and giving him the fight.
“They offered me the fight and me and Conor got on the phone. I just told him, ‘I’m not getting in no octagon with you so you can be kicking me and elbowing me,’” said Terence Crawford to Bernie Tha Boxer, revealing that he’d been offered a fight against former UFC champion Conor McGregor.
This is another example of Crawford showing a lack of ambition because he’d likely make more money fighting McGregor than he will in his next fight, which could be against WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora.
“He was just laughing and was like, ‘Man, I respect that. But we’d make a ton of money.’ Sometimes, it ain’t about the money. I can make money, but you ain’t about to be kicking me, dude,” said Crawford.
McGregor is a businessman with the way he’s trying to hustle fights against different fighters. Crawford would be no match for McGregor in the octagon unless he scored a knockout without getting kicked or taken down. Once Crawford was down, McGregor knows too many different submission holds for him to be able to get back up.
