KSI manager on Conor McGregor fight: ‘We were told it was a done deal’

Misfits Boxing head and KSI manager Mams Taylor is opening up on how close a boxing match between Conor McGregor and KSI was to coming together … and he says it was very close.

KSI (real name Olajide Olatunji) hasn’t stepped into the ring since a 2023 loss to Tommy Fury. Since then he’s pulled out of four fights in a row, most recently against Dillon Danis in March due to a dubious illness. It sounded more like a case of ‘being sick of boxing’ to us, and maybe you would be too if a big-money fight against Conor McGregor just slipped through your fingers like it did with “JJ.”

“The Conor McGregor one, we thought it was a done deal,” Taylor said on the Misfits Boxing YouTube channel. “We were told it was a done deal. I don’t know exactly [what happened] because I wasn’t part of the negotiations with Conor, but I think Conor made a statement recently about that and addressed it subtly so just refer back to that.”

“He wants to be the president,” he added. “He wants to be a politician. Who knows?”

Just as a reminder, while McGregor did talk about his run for president of Ireland, he also said he turned down an offer to fight on Turki Alalshikh’s upcoming June Alcatraz card because “it wasn’t my worth.”

“I think that’s a very exciting fight, a very wonderful fight, it would be massive,” Taylor said of KSI vs. McGregor. “That got KSI more excited than we’ve ever seen him. And I’ve seen I’ve seen him go through ups downs all kinds of crazy stuff uh that we’ve been through together. The excitement level when that was going to happen was high. He was like a little kid, and it was so nice to see.”

“I said to him that day when we spoke, I said, ‘Look, even though everyone’s saying it’s a done deal, just dial it back because it’s Conor McGregor. We don’t know. This is a new situation for us. Let’s wait and see.’”

“His Excellency is one person who can make that fight happen and hopefully he will,” Taylor concluded. “Because I don’t think there are many bigger fights than that on the planet in terms of viewership, pay-per-views, however you want to do it. It’s just a massive, massive mega fight.”

With a potential Conor McGregor fight still floating around and KSI sick of training for less than spectacular opponents, Mams said he didn’t expect any quick return against some random dude.

“I think we have to stick to the names right now that are going to just be mega, mega fights because if he’s going to put that much time and effort and sacrifice into something then it’s got to have a payoff. Not just financially, I mean that’s secondary, but for him I think getting the fans really excited and motivated.”