On Tuesday, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion and new WWE star Ronda Rousey engaged in a whirlwind media day that produced plenty of interesting soundbites – and a few truly awkward moments.
Given the current landscape of combat sports, it should come as no surprise that Rousey was eventually asked about the possibility of undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather moving to MMA.
Like most who have participated in the Mayweather-to-MMA discourse, Rousey gave the ostensibly retired boxer little chance, should he ever actually wander into the UFC’s perilous Octagon.
“Yeah, that’ll never happen,” Rousey told Mike Golic on the Golic and Wingo show. (h/t MMAFighting). “It’ll never happen. It’s all talk.”
“Different strokes for different folks, but I don’t think he’d do well in MMA at all,” she added later.
So, it seems we can safely file Rousey into the group of people who give Mayweather little chance in MMA. All the same, Mayweather seems content to continue flirting with the idea.
In his latest update on the subject, the boxing legend said there’s a “50-50” chance he will compete in MMA this year.
“I started training already,” Mayweather told FightHype.com this week (h/t MMAFighting). “Not the physical part, just the endurance part. I’m thinking about fighting in MMA. I’ve thought about it. I started training in Miami. I look forward to fighting probably at the end of the year. We don’t know. Right now it’s 50/50, it’s not 100 percent but I’ve already started training. . . I really don’t know yet but I’m very, very interested. We’ll just see. Everything takes time. Everything takes time.”
Do you think Floyd Mayweather has any chance in mixed martial arts competition, or do you share the opinion of his countless doubters – like Ronda Rousey? Join the conversation in the comments section!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/27/2018.