'He needs me ... I don’t need him'

"He needs me; I don’t need him,"

And with those fighting words, Conor McGregor has ramped up the intensity on Floyd Mayweather in the hype surrounding their proposed big-money showdown.

The former UFC champion and retired boxer have been trading verbal jabs since a superfight between the two stars surfaced earlier this month.

But in a knockout blow between the fight game's two biggest mouths, McGregor claimed he the "control" of making the fight a commercial success.

"He needs me; I don’t need him," McGregor told ESPN. "That's the truth of it.

"Who else can he fight?

"He fights someone else in the boxing realm, and all of a sudden, the pay goes from $100 million to $15 million.

"If he wants to talk, we can talk.

"But it's me who's in control here."

McGregor, who claimed Mayweather "leaked the rumour" of a possible fight, said his rival's proposed deal for the fight was "absolutely laughable".

"I hear the boy. I hear the boy talking," McGregor said. "And I said 'e gets $100 million, I get a $7 million?'

"That's a pay cut to me. I don’t take pay cuts.

"I thought boxing was where the money was at.

"The $7 million is absolutely laughable."

Despite the interest in a match-up between two of sports most bankable stars, the fight faces a nightmare of hurdles, least of all defining the rules.

But McGregor admitted he was unconcerned with the details of the fight, instead eyeing a shot at conquering "both worlds ".

"I don't really care about rules," he said.

"He can make all the rules he wants … he's getting old now.    

"I have the size, I have the reach, I have the height, I have the youth."