Earlier this year it was announced Floyd Mayweather, the all-time boxing great, would have a boxing fight atop the Burj Khalifa hotel in Dubai. This was publicized to be a boxing match atop the helipad and it seemed they had trouble finding an opponent. One such person who was offered this match was the UFC and WEC fighter Ian McCall.
McCall had a very successful MMA career from his time in Tachi Palace, the WEC, and the UFC. He was among the first fighter introduced when the UFC brought in its Flyweight division. He had a draw and a decision loss to “Might Mouse” Demetrious Johnson. He died of a drug overdose at one point in his life and came back. Between 2015 and 2017 he had six consecutive canceled bouts for various reasons. After two consecutive losses in RIZIN he called it a career.
However, in a recent interview with Calf Kick Sports, McCall says a phone call from Frank Shamrock nearly brought him into combat sports.
Floyd Mayweather vs Ian McCall
Speaking with Calf Kick Sports he explained:
“I got offered a Floyd Mayweather like a couple of months ago. This was for his Burj Khalifa hotel fight… My old manager Frank Shamrock calls me… I’m like ‘What’s up dude? What do you got for me?’ He goes, ‘Would you fight Floyd?’ And I go, ‘No, I don’t want to fight Floyd. What do you mean?”
After some time speaking with former UFC Champion Frank Shamrock, McCall warms up to the idea. But first, he needs to get into fighting shape. McCall says:
“And I said okay, Frank talked me into it. Make a few million dollars, I was like sure. I’ll go, that’s fine. Let me go get ready, let me go to the gym. So I go to RVCA and I start training. I stepped in the cage with [Marlon] ‘Chito’ Vera because I might as well jump back into the deep end. And Chito played with me a little bit, obviously, he was nice. But by the fourth round he shellacked me so hard my knees buckled. And he was like ‘You okay?’ Nope, I don’t want to be here anymore, I was like I’m not a fighter anymore… I just realized I don’t want to do this… This is silly”
Ian McCall is happy to leave the combat sports world. Even for millions of dollars, he recognizes how futile this fight would have been. A few rounds of sparring with top UFC ranked fighter Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera was more than enough. Today, Ian McCall works as a Psychedelic Integration Coach with his company ARGOS.
Although, he did add:
“I would come off the yoga mat to fight Floyd for a few million dollars, sure. I’m not going to train for it… If I could find a YouTuber who would pay me a few million dollars to beat the sh*t out of them I’d do it.
For full interview with Ian McCall see below. Floyd Mayweather talk begins at 55:12.
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