Despite all the rumors of Floyd Mayweather Jr. making a return to the ring, the boxing legend has remained steadfast he is "retired" and has no interest facing the best the sport has to offer. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't entertain the idea of facing MMA's two marquee stars.
The 43-year-old appeared on Shannon Sharpe's "Club Shay Shay" podcast and reiterated the point of staying away from the premier names in boxing. But in the event that he did decide to make the walk to the ring again, he wouldn't mind taking a rematch with Conor McGregor or UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Why go that route instead of remain in retirement, enjoy time with his family and help train fighters at Mayweather Boxing Club? For Mayweather, it's because of his nickname, "Money".
"Your health is your wealth," Mayweather said. "So as far as me going out there and competing against a guy like Conor McGregor, or a guy that's really inexperienced. Absolutely [I'd fight Khabib Nurmagomedov]. Those are $300 million fights.
"You have to make it make sense. Real sense. Certain type of dollars. I need to have my faculties also. I had my time. I had my era. It's these young fighters' era now. It's OK for me to go fight a Khabib or a Conor — with those two fights alone, I could pick up $600 million. That don't hurt to fight guys that just entertain. It's all entertainment."
Mayweather and McGregor are no strangers to one another. After a contentious promo tour where verbal taunts were spewed left and right, the two stars squared off in August 2017 with Mayweather winning by 10th-round TKO.
Mayweather and Nurmagomedov have teased a fight in the past, but it's been nothing more than just talk.
But the talk of facing McGregor perks Mayweather up more than Nurmagomedov. One of the reasons is that McGregor has insisted he knows what went wrong for him and has vowed if they met again, the result would be different.
Mayweather isn't too concerned about anything McGregor could do to him. To Mayweather, if he does come out of retirement, it would be because of his disdain for the Irishman.
"He knows what he did wrong, but he also knows what he did right," Mayweather said. "What he did wrong was get in the ring with me. What he did right was get in the ring with me so he could get a big payday.
"I don't like him at all. At all."