UFC president Dana White has stated his intention to expedite negotiations for a proposed boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, saying that Sunday is "absolutely" his deadline to wrap up a deal with McGregor before beginning talks with Mayweather's team.
"I plan on having this thing locked up by this Sunday and then moving on to Team Mayweather and starting a negotiation with them," White said Thursday on Jim Rome's radio show. "If we really do get it done in that time frame, then this thing could possibly happen.
"But again, I still need to go negotiate with [Mayweather's team]. There's no guarantee that we're going to come to a deal."
White said he hopes to sit down and negotiate with Mayweather's team on Monday, adding that he feels "pretty good" about reaching an agreement with the former pound-for-pound boxing king.
"I just can't keep messing with this thing," White said. "I need to run my business, and I have to focus on all the other things that are going on around here."
In April, White said he was on board with McGregor's desire to fight Mayweather in a boxing match, indicating that the difficult part of the negotiations would come from Mayweather's side.
White has estimated McGregor's payday for a potential fight with Mayweather at $75 million, which would dwarf any amount McGregor has made in the UFC, where he is lightweight champion. McGregor, meanwhile, has previously thrown out a number of $100 million to fight Mayweather.
"The Conor side -- we're good on the Conor side," White said last month. "I need to figure out the Mayweather side, and maybe it can't be. Maybe the Mayweather side can't be done. We'll see. I promised Conor I'd do everything I could to make this fight happen, so that's what I'm going to do."