We’ve already had “MayMac.” Could “PacMac” be next?
That’s the question we just can’t shake after seeing the pic above of Paradigm Sports Management chief Audie Attar shaking hands with Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao after signing the boxer-turned-senator to his fighter roster.
Attar’s biggest combat sports client, of course, is none other “The Notorious” one himself, Conor McGregor, and we already know that Pacquiao and his team have expressed interest on a boxing matchup with the UFC superstar. Even McGregor himself told us during UFC 246 fight week that talks were ongoing with Pacquiao’s team over a potential matchup. Now Pacquiao and McGregor are under the same promotional umbrella, meaning that fight just got a whole lot easier to make.
But before people start losing their minds – in good or bad ways – over the possibility, it’s also worth noting that it’s not necessarily the booking of a McGregor-Pacquiao fight that counts for the Irishman, it’s the ability to book it that really counts.
Leverage is everything in the fight game and McGregor, fresh off his 40-second demolition of Donald Cerrone in Las Vegas, now has a much easier option to jump back into boxing, should he so wish. That can either become a reality, or it can be used as a bargaining chip for his next fight.
With Khabib Nurmagomedov finally set to face Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 in Brooklyn on April 18, we know McGregor faces a wait before getting a shot at the 155-pound title. But he could perhaps use his box-office clout, plus the potential of another busman’s holiday in boxing, to leverage himself into a welterweight title fight with Kamaru Usman. After all, Usman, himself, hinted at the possibility during his guest fighter scrum at this past weekend’s UFC 247 in Houston.
There’s also the possibility that a “PacMac” fight could be used as the springboard to launch the long-discussed Zuffa Boxing venture, with McGregor and his team potentially taking a sizable slice of the pie as co-promoters.
It all means that Attar will be sitting pretty at the negotiating table when he’s discussing McGregor’s next fight. The grin in the second picture above says it all.
Will it be Pacquiao? Will it be Usman? Will it be the Nate Diaz trilogy fight? Watch this space.
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Manny Pacquiao signs for Paradigm: Did 'PacMac' just get one step closer?