Mayweather was noted for his outspoken statements when he was dominating the boxing world as an undefeated world champion, but he rarely received the kind of popularity McGregor has been attracting in his rapid rise to the top of his sport.
While Mayweather retired from the ring as a legend of the sport last year, he is clearly a little perturbed by McGregor’s status as one of the hottest names in sport heading into 2016 after he offered up these angry comments.
“I don’t really know the McGregor guy, never seen him fight,” he told fighthype.com.
“I heard his name actually from one of the runners that works for our company, a little kid named Ken Hopkins, he’s a runner and takes care of a lot of the daily business.
“Whatever we need, he takes care of. He’s a cool little kid, I like him, and he does MMA. He told me about the guy McGregor.
“They say he talk 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.”
McGregor has previously stated that he would “kill” Mayweather if the pair met in a UFC octagon, prompting the boxing champion to suggest the Irishman was “trying to get himself some publicity.”
Now it seems as if Mayweather is happy to talk about recently crowned UFC world champion McGregor, with his suggestion that racism is at the heart of the reason why he was not celebrated as a sporting icon by many certain to set tongues wagging.
