Gunnar Nelson: If Conor McGregor Beats Mayweather, ‘I’m Not Sure He’ll Ever Fight Again’

If everything comes together and Conor McGregor does eventually face Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match, the Irishman will undoubtedly be a huge underdog.

If he does pull off the upset, there’s the possibility that the “Notorious” one never fights again. At least that’s the thinking of UFC welterweight Gunnar Nelson, who has been a training partner of McGregor’s since the two men were teenagers.

“You never know what he’s gonna do next. If he beats Mayweather, I’m not sure he’ll ever fight again, to be honest,” Nelson recently told Submission Radio. “I don’t know. But I could see him going off and doing something else. But otherwise, maybe he’ll fight Khabib [Nurmagomedov] or something next, if Khabib is in shape. I don’t know if there’s something wrong with his kidneys after that cut, but we’ll see. I don’t know what he ‘s gonna do but he’s just focusing on one thing at a time and right now it’s Floyd Mayweather. I’m looking forward to that myself.”

Talks regarding a proposed McGregor-Mayweather bout seem to be picking up steam. UFC President Dana White sounded optimistic that he could finalize the UFC lightweight champion’s portion of the contract this week and estimated that McGregor would earn $75 million for the bout. However, McGregor himself is thinking bigger, boasting that his payday would ultimately surpass $100 million.

Regardless of which figure is correct, McGregor stands to earn significantly more for facing Mayweather than he has for any Octagon appearance. That coupled with the fact that the SBG Ireland representative has already captured UFC titles at both featherweight and lightweight has Nelson contemplating whether his training partner might struggle to find motivation further down the road.

“I’m basing it on that he wants to go bigger every time. If he beats Mayweather -- he’s taken the two [UFC] belts, right? -- and then he beats Mayweather in this huge super fight, then I’m not sure what he’s gonna see as the next challenge or the next thing that he wants to do,” Nelson said. “I don’t really see what he wants to come into the UFC again for. I’m not sure. There’s always something. He’s also having a baby. I’m not sure where his mind is gonna be. He’s gonna have a ton of money anyway. Maybe he’ll do another boxing match or something. Maybe he’ll get more money there or be more interested in that.”