Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather's rematch talks have left fans scratching their heads five years after the pair initially met in the ring.
The former two-weight UFC world champion was on top of the world when he faced Mayweather back in 2017. He held both the lightweight and featherweight belts and being widely considered one of MMA's pound-for-pound greats, but ultimately was beaten in relatively comfortable fashion within ten rounds by the boxing icon.
Mayweather came out of retirement for one night only to face McGregor is one of the biggest fights of all time, which generated 4.3million pay-per-view sales. He has since competed in big money exhibitions, but has insisted he will never box fully professionally again.
Despite their last fight being a massive earner, it would be a much more difficult sell the second time around, with McGregor dropping both of his belts and going 1-3 since the last outing. He was praised for his performance against Mayweather, but lost his return to the UFC before sitting out for over a year through injury.
Then the coronavirus pandemic cost him a further year of activity, and when he came back in 2021 he lost his next two fights. Now, the Irishman appears to have been focusing more heavily on his boxing as MMA training is still out of the question following a broken leg suffered last summer, but he's not nearly as feared a prospect as 2017.
And fans echoed those sentiments when talks for the bout were surfaced by FightHype, who claim Mayweather will make another nine-figure payday. "Missed the boat and nobody literally nobody wants this," one fan wrote. "Shame."
Another responded to the report by adding: "The news conferences would be fun but hard pass on another fight between these two," while another said "Oh man please stop with that".
Some fans appeared to be happy about the fight, with thousands commenting under McGregor's cryptic Instagram post where he shared a photo from their last meeting with the caption "I accept". One declared that the Irishman was still "the king of mma and boxing".
Would you be excited to see Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Another fan wrote: "You're the king of fighting Conor never forget it," and one also said "wow, this is really great! Another legendary boxing fight."
McGregor then shared a photo showing sparring at the Crumlin Boxing Club, where he has been training while awaits the all clear to get back to MMA sparring. He recently returned to throwing kicks with his injured leg, and has been tipped to return late this year or early next.
Meanwhile, Mayweather is currently preparing for the latest in his string of post-retirement exhibition bouts. He will return to Japan in September to face Mikuru Asakura on a Rizin card, with details to be confirmed in the coming weeks of a date and location.
