Floyd Mayweather: ‘I’m officially out of retirement for Conor McGregor’

For the last year, combat sports headlines have been dominated by talk of a potential super-fight between all-time boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. And while nothing substantive has happened towards making the fight a reality, things may have just gotten a little more interesting.

At a stop during his recent United Kingdom tour, Mayweather announced that he is officially out of retirement from the sport of boxing in order to pursue a fight with McGregor, telling the UFC champ to fight him in June.

“When I faced Arturo Gatti, I went to his turf,” Mayweather said (via FightHype). “He was the A side, I was the B side. I beat him, I didn’t cry, I didn’t complain. When I faced Oscar De La Hoya, he was the A side, I was the B side. I didn’t cry, I didn’t complain, I beat him and I became the A side. For Conor McGregor, I’m coming out of retirement, just to fight Conor McGregor.

“I don’t want to hear no more excuses about the money, about the UFC. Sign the paper with the UFC so you can fight me in June. Simple and plain. Let’s fight in June. You’re the B side, I’m the A side. We’re not here to cry about money. I’m tired of all this crying about money and talking about you want to fight. You blowing smoke up everybody’s ass. If you want to fight, sign the paperwork, let’s do it.

“Today, I’m officially out of retirement for Conor McGregor. We don’t need to waste no time. We need to make this s**t happen quickly. Let’s get it on in June.”

Though McGregor has said he expects his next fight to be in a boxing ring, the lightweight champion is currently taking a break to celebrate the impending birth of his first child, a son, with his long-time girlfriend Dee Devlin. Devlin’s due date is in May and McGregor wasn’t expected to return to fighting until afterwards.

Perhaps the possibility of being part of one of the biggest pay-per-view events in history is enough to move his timeline up.