The pursuit of dominance within a confined space and a chaotic ballet of violence. These are two of the several common threads that bind the world of MMA and boxing. If Conor McGregor has boxed once, why can’t he do it again? Well, that’s exactly what the Irishman was looking for when he approached the unified welterweight champion, Terence Crawford, but he had a different plan in mind this time. ‘The Notorious’ wanted to take on the boxing star in an MMA fight. However, Crawford wasn’t ready to entertain that idea.

“They called me and they offered me the fight and me and Conor got on the phone… I just told him, ‘I’m not getting into no f***ing Octagon with you so you can be kicking me and elbowing me and sh*t’… Sometimes it ain’t about the money. I can make money but you ain’t about to be kicking me, dude,” Terence Crawford told ‘Bernie Tha Boxer’. However, Conor McGregor returned with another lucrative deal that involved a $200 million payday for ‘Bud’.

“Big respect to [Terence Crawford] $100 million dollars a fight, 1 MMA, 1 boxing. 200 million dollars,” Conor McGregor commented on Instagram, only to find an intrigued Crawford reply, “Tempted.” So is this really happening? We’ll have to wait for further developments on this front.

Meanwhile, Terence Crawford has a real reason for turning down the MMA fight against arguably the biggest star in the sport. He opened up about it a while back when he sat down with Joe Rogan for a candid conversation on the latter’s $200+ million podcast.

Why did Terence Crawford turn down Conor McGregor’s MMA challenge before receiving the $200 million offer?

Over a month after Terence Crawford knocked out Errol Spence Jr., he made his first appearance on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, where he came clean about his fears of competing in an MMA fight. While mentioning that the first thing about his hesitation to do MMA was the money, the unified welterweight champion would go on to reveal his disdain towards kicking moves.

While referring to the time when Muhammad Ali fought Antonio Inoki in what was considered to be the first true crossover fight, Terence Crawford learned that ‘The People’s Champion’ had been wrecked up by the Japanese legend’s kicks. As such, he doesn’t want the same fate for himself. “Hey look, we could wrestle, we could fight, but the kicks? No. I don’t care,” Crawford told Rogan.

The boxing star would also reveal that kicks could cost a fighter a lot more than his career. “Man, them kicks are dangerous, bro. Especially, them kicks in the legs,” Crawford added while highlighting the significant health impacts of being on the receiving end of leg kicks. It is safe to say that the prospect of competing inside the Octagon surely doesn’t seem to excite him as much.

Meanwhile, what do you think Terence Crawford should do? Would you be interested in watching him take on Conor McGregor inside the Octagon? Drop your comments below.