Conor McGregor offers to sponsor Katie Taylor fight at Croke Park to make event happen, Eddie Hearn receptive

Earlier this week, Eddie Hearn said that the hope for Dublin’s Croke Park to host a Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano rematch this spring was “dead” in an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, and that the idea for the fight was still to do it on May 20 in Dublin, potentially at 3Arena.

Hearn also added that they still hoped to put together a Croke Park event for Katie later in the year, possibly in September, citing the major costs of getting the fight done for Croke in May.

“So the cost of everything involved with the event is three times nearly more (at Croke Park) than staging it at Wembley Stadium. It’s unbelievable, it’s so frustrating,” Hearn said.

“People will just Tweet me and go, ‘Shut up, Hearn, just do it anyway!’ It doesn’t work like that, it’s a business. Ultimately, Katie Taylor has her financial demands for this fight, so does Amanda Serrano, and we want to make sure we deliver them that. But we’re so far out on that possibility with the cost of running that show, and we’re out of time, in terms of delivering that date to the broadcaster.

“We’ve got to move. So now, we’ll be in a big arena in Dublin — subject to Serrano winning (against Erika Cruz on Saturday), and subject to tying up a deal. And then hopefully in September, we revisit Croke Park.”

But today, Conor McGregor — the massively famous MMA superstar, one-time boxer, and liquor pitchman — threw out an offer to “sponsor the event” if it meant getting Taylor her fight at Croke Park, and Hearn was at least publicly receptive to the idea.

McGregor, of course, is an Irish fighting legend, just like Taylor, and while maybe you might think the two seem to have little in common as personalities — and maybe they don’t have much in common — McGregor has been a noted, public fan of Taylor’s for many years.

The chance for McGregor, either individually himself or more likely and wisely through businesses he can bring to the table, to sponsor Taylor’s long-hyped chance to fight in front of a massive crowd in Ireland, where she is a legitimate sporting hero and icon, kinda seems like a no-brainer, really.

Will it happen? We’ll see, but it’s a nice gesture from McGregor, and given his past comments on Taylor, it seems genuine.

Taylor will be ringside in New York on Saturday for Amanda Serrano’s fight with Erika Cruz, where if Serrano wins, it’s expected if not guaranteed that will lead into a Taylor vs Serrano rematch.