FIGHT ISLAND — Conor McGregor is "certainly a viewer" of YouTube creators like Jake Paul, and said they don't make a mockery of fighting.
"If they are fighting well then it can't make a mockery of fighting," the former two-weight UFC champion told a Bloomberg reporter during a YouTube video that has since been removed from the platform.
"They're getting in and competing. I am not so much against it," McGregor said.
Of all the YouTubers who have gone on to compete in boxing matches, regardless of whether it is an officially sanctioned bout or a professional contest, it is Jake Paul who has established himself as the most prominent of the lot.
Paul advanced his pro boxing record to two wins (two knockouts) in November when he flattened the former NBA player Nate Robinson in the co-main event of Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr.'s highly-hyped exhibition.
The entire show was a resounding success at the box office, becoming boxing's best-selling pay-per-view event of 2020. The bout was bought 1.6 million times, according to Sports Pro Media.
McGregor claimed the success of the show was down to the two all-time greats on the show, rather than anything Paul had done to promote the event.
"What I will say though is the numbers that that show calculated was a Mike Tyson fight. You had an icon fighting as well as Roy Jones Jr, two GOATs [greatest of all time] of combat sports," said McGregor.
"And then you had the YouTube kid [Paul] and NBA star [Robinson] competing underneath that. So they done good business.
"Am I into those competitions myself? You know it's not the most high-level — if any level — at that stage.
"Obviously the Tyson vs Jones fight was very high-level and very interesting to see what they're like in their older age. I thought they both fought amazingly.
"As they say, if it makes dollars, it makes sense. I know Dana [White] and the UFC are not really into it, but I'm not so against it.
"I think if people are willing to get in and take the risk of making that walk, I'm certainly a viewer," he finished.
While happy to discuss showbiz boxing, McGregor didn't allow himself to be drawn into discussing Jake Paul's attempts to secure a fight against him during the segment.
In a sweary, insult-filled callout video Paul dropped in December, the creator said he had a $50 million fight offer for McGregor.
In the 58-second clip, Paul insulted McGregor's fiancée Dee Devlin, his opponent this weekend Dustin Poirier, and his UFC boss, Dana White.
An apparent bout proposal suggests the fight would take place using boxing rules and 10-ounce gloves and fought at 185 pounds for eight three-minute rounds.
Rather than think about Paul, McGregor has a UFC fight to think about. McGregor returns to professional fighting Saturday for the first time in 12 months when he competes against Poirier in a lightweight match that headlines the UFC 257 bill on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
The winner is expected to be thrust into a title shot against Khabib Nurmagomedov, or somebody else if the Russian wrestler remains retired.
The UFC boss White met Nurmagomedov at a UAE Warriors show in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
White said the following day that he believes the fighter can be lured back into the Octagon by someone who does something "spectacular" this coming weekend.
Read more:
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