Floyd Mayweather is speaking out about Conor McGregor’s controversial comments made last month during a world tour for the two fighters’ upcoming match.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Irish MMA superstar was asked who would win a fight between him and Sylvester Stallone’s character from Rocky III.
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“I’m trying to remember which one was Rocky III. Was that the one in the celebrity gym? I can’t remember if that’s the one with the dancing monkeys or not,” McGregor said.
This comment did not sit well with Mayweather, 40. He took the reference to be a racially-motivated remark.
“I just didn’t like when he called us monkeys,” Mayweather said of McGregor while speaking with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. “I think that was totally disrespect…He called us monkeys. I didn’t like it. It didn’t push a button to make me jump out of my character and go crazy, but I didn’t like it.”
While it remains unclear what the 29-year-old meant while discussing Rocky III on Jimmy Kimmel Live, some on social media believed that the comment was a reference to a scene in which a number of black boxers were seen training in a gym. McGregor has denied the claim that he made controversial remarks, but his next opponent, Mayweather, found them offensive.
“I just thought about all our different leaders,” Mayweather said. “Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. They went on the front line for me and my family and all my loved ones. Like I said before, this stuff still goes on. But I’m strong, I’m smart, patient. And come Aug. 26, I’ll be the same person — smart, strong, patient. And the same way he called us monkeys, we’re gonna see if he says that Aug. 26.”
Going into the fight, Mayweather said that McGregor’s comments haven’t changed his training regimen.
“No different,” Mayweather said. “But this is for a cause. This is for the American people. This is for all the blacks around the world.”
This isn’t the first time that McGregor has angered social media with his taunts. Last month, Mayweather’s ex was infuriated with McGregor after he referenced a physical assault situation from the past between her and the legendary boxer.
