UFC stars express interest in boxing vs. MMA pay-per-view

The biggest ongoing story in combat sports today surrounds a possible boxing mega-fight between transcendent MMA star Conor McGregor and boxing great Floyd Mayweather. For a time, of course, this potential showdown looked like a near impossibility. With each passing day, however, there seems to be more and more reason to believe a Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing match could actually happen.

Were Mayweather and McGregor to meet in the boxing ring, it could safely be referred to as the biggest fight in combat sports history. Given this, it would also go down as one of the most lucrative fights – if not the most lucrative fight – in the history of fighting sports.

Unsurprisingly, the lucrative nature of a potential Mayweather vs. McGregor card has made many fighters from both MMA and boxing eager to participate.

Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. has repeatedly called for a co-headlining boxing match with UFC middleweight great Anderson Silva, and Silva has since implied his own interest. Top-5 UFC light heavyweight Jimi Manuwa, meanwhile, has said that he’d like to battle David Haye in a boxing match – which would also be an interesting addition to this potential card. More recently still, former boxing champ Jean Pascal has called for a boxing match with former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz.

Needless to say, the ingredients for a massive, sport-transcending boxing vs. MMA pay-per-view are starting to come together, and the possibility is quite compelling to many of the game’s top fighters.

On Monday morning, UFC featherweight Cub Swanson responded to BJPENN.COM’s report on Pascal’s callout of Diaz, saying that he hopes some of these sport vs. sport fights start happening. This prompted ranked UFC middleweight Kelvin Gastelum to respond, suggesting a boxing vs. MMA pay-per-view outright. See Swanson and Gastelum’s tweets on the subject below.

😳 I hope some of these fights start happening https://t.co/Rvf2ER0l3l

— Cub Swanson (@CubSwanson) March 27, 2017

How bout a whole PPV event! Boxing vs UFC fighter!! I want in on some haha 😜 https://t.co/yVcdVcWZBx

— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) March 27, 2017

I'd like to see that 💯 https://t.co/V74Xv1PrNa

— Cub Swanson (@CubSwanson) March 27, 2017

Because I love stepping outside comfort zones and rising to new exciting challenges https://t.co/WpeT5L0EmK

— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) March 27, 2017

As farfetched of an idea as it is, a hypothetical pay-per-view of this type would be a surefire record-breaker. Who would you like to see Kelvin Gastelum and Cub Swanson box on such a card? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/27/2017.