Piles of money might just have changed Terence Crawford’s mind after he rejected a substantial offer to square off against former UFC double champion Conor McGregor. Earlier this month, Notorious disclosed that he had proposed a two-fight deal—a boxing match and an MMA bout—against Crawford. According to McGregor, this deal could have seen the former undisputed welterweight champion pocket up to $100 million for each fight.

Despite the enormous money involved with the fights, McGregor added that ‘Bud’ Crawford refused to partake in a fight in the octagon. While appearing in an interview with Bernie the Boxer, the Nebraska native stated, “I told Conor, ‘Hell no’. They called me and they offered me the fight and me and Conor got on the phone and started trying to figure something out.”

He further emphasized that he was not willing to enter the octagon, where McGregor would be “kicking me and elbow me and s***.” When McGregor tried to entice the multi-weight champion with the prospect of pocketing over a hundred million in earnings, Crawford claimed it was not about the money because he could make money, “but you ain’t about to be kicking me, dude.”

However, since this statement, Crawford seems to have changed his mind. Turning to his Instagram stories today, the former two-division undisputed champion shared a clip while in a gym. It showed some kids wrestling, as Crawford stood with his phone in his hand and said, “Aye! Conor [McGregor]! I’m getting back on the mat! Stay tuned, baby! We working!”

It’s also worth noting that McGregor had previously taken to Instagram to show his respect to Crawford for rejecting such a substantial offer. He wrote, “Big respect to @tbudcrawford! $100million dollars in a fight, 1 in MMA, 1 boxing. $200million dollars!” Responding to this, Crawford expressed regret in his decision, writing, “@thenotoriousmma tempted.”

However, one question still remains, why the sudden change of heart?

Did Terence Crawford choose Conor McGregor over Sebastian Fundora? 

Crawford is mainly focused on securing the biggest fights possible to make some big paychecks at the tail end of his career—his relentless pursuit of super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez is evidence of the same. Regardless, the WBO had ordered their champion, Sebastian Fundora, to defend his title against Crawford a while back. 

However, in a surprising turn, a deal was met and Fundora was allowed to make a voluntary title defense against Errol Spence Jr., which meant if Fundora won that fight, he would fight Crawford later next year. Conveniently, as this news came out, Crawford started hinting at a fight against McGregor despite rejecting it before. 

It’s currently unclear what caused Crawford’s change of heart, but it conveniently fits in perfectly in the timeline with the latest update of Fundora vs. Spence. Still, whether the Terence Crawford vs. Conor McGregor becomes a reality is yet to be seen. Do you think ‘Bud’ will fight the dual-weight UFC champion?