After signing his deal with UFC earlier this week for a boxing superfight opposite Floyd Mayweather, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor must wait and see how long it takes for Team Money to get what it wants. According to McGregor’s striking coach, Owen Roddy, “Notorious” will only benefit from any prolonged contract negotiations between UFC and Mayweather.
"We’re training now. The longer it takes Mayweather to sign, the better it is for us,” said Roddy during a recent interview with Newstalk.com. “We get more time to study him the longer he drags it out. We can get people in to help us if needs be. I see the negotiation period as just more time for Conor to immerse himself in boxing.
"The longer he takes to sign, the better it is for us. To be honest, we’re ready to go now."
That may very well be the case, but McGregor is going to have to make up for years of boxing experience in order to sniff Mayweather’s level of skill whenever the two decide to trade fists. Fortunately for McGregor, his preparation for the combat superfight began last year.
"We’ve almost been preparing since Conor’s last UFC fight,” said Roddy. “As soon as the talk picked up we started getting ready for it. We all realized that there was too much money to be made on both sides for it not to happen.
"Both Conor and Mayweather made it clear that they wanted the fight, so it was bound to happen.”
While both fighters began training camp earlier this week, it’s presumably going to take Mayweather an exhausted amount of time to sign. But if “Money” can ink a deal that he’s satisfied with, he’ll join McGregor in the quest to bank millions.
"Conor is happy with what he’s getting,” said Roddy. “If Conor is happy with what he’s getting, I don’t think he cares what Mayweather is getting. It makes no difference.
"Conor would not have signed if he wasn’t happy with his deal. I doubt he will be affected in any way by what Mayweather is getting for it.”
Let the waiting begin...