Retired UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed he rejected countless approaches to fight with Box legend Floyd Mayweather for $100million claiming that he ‘never fights for money’.
The former Russian fighter has retired last October after beating Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 and he could not go on the ring without his father alongside with him as he has passed away from coronavirus one year ago.
Khabib has revealed before his retirement had a chance to fight with Mayweather in a Middle East crossover bout ‘every month’; however, the 32-year-old fighter told boxing legend Mike Tyson, that receiving that amount of money for one match is ‘dangerous’ in this industry.
He told Tyson’s HotBoxin’ podcast: ‘I don’t wanna make boxing community upset with me. Of course money makes sense too. But I never fight for money. Money is good, but most of the time it is bad.
‘Money brings you to the situation that you have never been, and you don’t know how to act when you have so much money.
‘It is a little bit dangerous. In this business, I don’t come to make money. I come here for legacy.’
Khabib has retired from UFC with a historic record 29-0 during the 12 years he spends in the octagon.
Mayweather, meanwhile, also never suffered a defeat in boxing as he helds 50-0 record with 27 of them knockouts.
Khabib’s agent, Ali Abdelaziz, has recently confirmed that UFC president Dana White was fully behind the Russian fighter taking part in a boxing clash, however, only wants to entertain Mayweather making the shift over to UFC.
Abdelaziz added: ‘Listen, we got offered $100m (£72m) to fight Floyd Mayweather. Dana White was on board, everybody was on board.
‘But, you know, Khabib is an MMA fighter. If Floyd wanted to come to fight, get his little ass whooped, no problem.’
Crossover fights have become extremely popular recently, with Mayweather already had a fight with Conor McGregor in the ring in 2017.
The American knocked McGregor down in the tenth round and reportedly earned $300m from the clash, while Conor earned $100m.
Mayweather also took on Logan Paul in June and failed to knock the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
The Mayweather-Paul clash failed to impress Khabib, who revealed that the only motivation for the two fighters was ‘money’ and ‘purely business’.
Speaking about the fight, Khabib told Russian media in June: ‘What’s there to say? They came out, made money. It’s purely business.
‘There was no competitive aspect to it, old Mayweather came out, they sparred and made money – what else is there to say?’
