Conor McGregor responds to Floyd Mayweather’s claim that his success is due to racial bias

Earlier this week, boxing legend Floyd Mayweather singled out the UFC’s Conor McGregor, saying his braggadocio behavior and subsequent successes are a product of racism.

Mayweather claimed that during his time as an elite athlete, he was often criticized in the media for his loud, abrasive persona, despite being the best fighter in all of boxing. Yet McGregor, who carries an equally boisterous persona, is lauded for his achievements and praised in the media for his antics outside of the ring.

The reason, essentially, according to Mayweather, is because he’s white: “They say he talks a lot of trash and people praise him for it, but when I did it, they say I’m cocky and arrogant. So biased! Like I said before, all I’m saying is this: I ain’t racist at all, but I’m telling you racism still exists.”

Many were awaiting McGregor’s response. Well, here it is:

“Floyd Mayweather, don’t ever bring race into my success again,” McGregor said in a recent social media post. “I am an Irishman. My people have been oppressed our entire existence. And still very much are. I understand the feeling of prejudice. It is a feeling that is deep in my blood.

“In my family’s long history of warfare there was a time where just having the name ‘McGregor’ was punishable by death. Do not ever put me in a bracket like this again. If you want we can [organize] a fight no problem.”

McGregor continued, proclaiming he would give Mayweather an “80-20 split purse” – favoring McGregor of course – saying, “seen as your last fight bombed at every area of revenue.”

Mayweather reigned over the boxing world for more than a decade, en route to a stellar undefeated record (49-0). He also holds the largest pay-per-view event in the history of television, when he fought Manny Pacquiao in May 2015. “Money” spent his entire career employing a wizard-like approach to his fights, dominating his competition with virtuosic speed, timing and ring savvy.

McGregor is just beginning his career in mixed martial arts, and with three years to go before he reaches 30, there is no brighter star in the entire sport. Oh, and that 13-second knockout of the greatest sub-170-pound fighter, Jose Aldo, at last month’s UFC 194 didn’t hurt his prospects very much, either. Now, with the featherweight title firmly in his grasp, it is expected McGregor will move up in weight and challenge lightweight champ, Rafael dos Anjos, in March at UFC 197 in Las Vegas. If he is successful, he will be the first fighter in MMA history to hold two titles, in two divisions, at the same time.

McGregor and Mayweather will, in all likelihood, never come close to exchanging leather in a ring. But if they do, McGregor wants Mayweather to remember his place in retirement.

“At 27 years of age I now hold the key to this game,” he said. “The game answers to me now.”