McGregor fires back at Mayweather: ‘Don’t ever bring race into my success again’

MANILA, Philippines – UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor fired back at retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr after the American fighter claimed a racial double standard was the reason McGregor’s bravado is received positively while his own has resulted in vilification.

“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,” Mayweather said of the Dublin, Ireland native in an interview with FightHype.com.

McGregor responded on his Facebook page, asserting that he has had to overcome his own prejudice to claim his accolades, which include being named 2015 Fighter of the Year by ESPN, Yahoo! and other news outlets.

“Floyd Mayweather, don’t ever bring race into my success again,” writes McGregor, who holds a 19-2 (17 knockouts) MMA record. “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.”

McGregor, who is fresh off a record-setting 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo at UFC 194 in December, used the platform to call out the 38-year-old fighter, who retired in September with a record of 49-0 (26 KOs), to a fight with an 80-20 purse split in his own favor.

The line seemed more intended to set up an insult about the underwhelming pay-per-view numbers for Mayweather’s final bout against Andre Berto than a legitimate challenge.

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

Mayweather, who once chided Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao by saying he would make him “make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice,” didn’t reserve his comments for McGregor alone.

Among his other claims were that Andre Ward, who has fought just once in the past two years, should be higher on The Ring magazine’s pound-for-pound list than the no. 4 spot he currently occupies.

McGregor is set to face lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 197 in March. – Rappler.com