Showtime Boss: McGregor and Mayweather bout could happen but is “an uphill battle”

Stephen Espinoza, boss of major US Television network and pay-per-view provider Showtime today added fuel to the fire with comments surrounding the possibility of a Conor McGregor/Floyd Mayweather super-fight.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Espinoza claimed “It would take an unprecedented deal to make this happen – we’ve seen unprecedented deals that allowed mega-fights to happen before”

It’s known that issues surrounding McGregor’s UFC deal potentially prevent a bout from happening without agreement from the mixed-martial-arts organisation, McGregor has stated publicly in the past that he believes the ‘Ali act’ would allow him to compete in a bout with Floyd, without requiring the UFC’s written permission, however this is still yet to be tested.

Espinoza went on to tell Sky that “It’s an uphill battle, simply because it’s never been done before. But we have two potential combatants who are interested and motivated in making it happen, plus tens of millions of people around the world who are eagerly anticipating the match.”

Whilst many within the media have argued that a boxing match would see Mayweather win comfortably in a very one sided fight, Espinoza believes otherwise.

“We can go through the history – there were fights that were uniformly expected to be one-sided but, when they happened, there was a much different result. The Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight was criticised but it turned out differently. It’s no foregone conclusion that this is a Mayweather victory – yes, he is one of the most skilled boxers of modern times but McGregor has his own set of assets and strengths.”