Face of the Fight Game, Conor McGregor Comes Out of Retirement to Face Manny Pacquiao in the Middle East!
This weekend is arguably the most interesting one for all the fans of combat sports! Not only because Abu Dhabi is hosting the second edition of Fight Island, and it kicked off with a very interesting UFC 253, but also a major announcement was dropped that got everyone on the edge. The face of the fight game, Conor McGregor tweeted last weekend that his next fight is going to be against boxing legend Manny Pacquiao and that this fight is targeted to take place in the Middle East!
The Irishman’s coming out of retirement didn’t surprise anyone as he already retired and came out of retirement three times in the past four years. And also, UFC President Dana White already said in an earlier interview that they’re talking with Conor on something interesting in early 2021. Everyone back then suspected that Conor will be back to the octagon, but didn’t guess it’ll be to the boxing ring instead.
This is not going to be Conor’s first mega cross over fight to face a boxing legend, as he already did back in 2017 against Floyd Mayweather and it sold 4.3 million PPV buys, and became the second-biggest selling bout in history.
The eight-division champion’s camp responded to the McGregor news stating that “For the sake of all the Filipino Covid-19 victims, Senator Manny Pacquiao will be fighting UFC superstar Conor McGregor next year. The huge portion of his earnings will proceed to those who are affected nationwide by the pandemic.”
“Of course there are two or three countries that you’d normally expect here. If you narrow down the scope geographically, it’s the GCC. It’s one of a few markets that are interested” said Azhar Muhammad Saul, senior vice president of strategy and business development at Paradigm that represents both fighters. He also added that they’re looking at a window between the end of December to early January for the super-fight!