‘He was just roaring and shouting’ – Luke Keeler discusses Conor McGregor fight ‘talks’

They weren’t quite talks more verbal sparring, but Luke Keeler has re -confirmed Conor McGregor did agree to fight him over some angry phone calls.

The soon to be middleweight world title challenger became embroiled in a now notorious spat with the ‘Notorious’ last year.

The Ballyfermot middleweight called out the MMA star post the clip of McGregor punching an old man in a pub went viral.

Keeler suggested UFC’s biggest name did something similar to his friend and offered to ‘put manners on him’.

McGregor never publicly responded, but Irish-boxing.com reported at the time that he did get in touch with his fellow former Crumlin amateur and did agree to fight.

Rumours of offers followed, but it wasn’t long before Keeler was dismissing the chances of the clash happening, the 32-year-old wondered if McGregor would be fit to fight anytime soon, didn’t think the MMA fighter was serious and had a big fight of his own on the horizon.

Speaking to Boxing News 24 this week the issue was re raised and Keeler explained the scenario in more detail before suggesting the fight is always an option down the line.

“He took offence (when) I called him out when he hit that old man. We’re from the same area. He took offence and had a bit of a rant on the phone. It wasn’t much to it, but he kind of half agreed on the phone to fight,” Keeler explained before questioning McGregor’s popularity.

“I don’ t think he was in the right frame of mind. He was just roaring and shouting. He wasn’t that serious, I don’t think. I think he was more sore over being called out. He’s a huge ego, hasn’t he? He’s kind of not liked in Dublin anymore, in a way.

“The Irish crowd are starting to turn against him with these incidents. Me publicly calling him out, the fact that we know kind of similar people and being from the same area was a blow to his ego. You never know, if I win a world title, I might get him in and get a payday.”

Both men are in action this month with Keeler challenging WBO middleweight world champion Demetruis Andrade for his title in Texas on the January 30. While McGregor faces Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone when he returns to the octagon for the first time since October 2018 to headline UFC 246 on January 18.

Keeler also revealed he had a number of big fight options before landing the biggest one available.

“There was actually talk of the (Jaime) Munguia fight that Spike O’Sullivan got. There was talk of the fight with (Ryota) Murata in Japan in December and Steven Butler took that fight. I felt that I wanted that step up after the Arias fight. I was looking for that step up.”