Phelps dares Connor McGregor to take him on in the pool (but not in the octagon)

The most highly decorated Olympian of all time is in Dubai today, to open a new Under Armour store in Dubai Mall. But while chatting to journalists before the official unveiling, Phelps spent some time discussing the current trend of athletes competing in unfamiliar sports territory.

With the Mayweather and McGregor fight still fresh in the minds of sports fans, Esquire asked Michael Phelps whether or not he’d allow ‘The Notorious’ to branch out into the world of swimming, with a one-time freestyle race and a 50-metre head start. 

Speaking to a panel of journalists, the 28-time gold-winning Olympian said, “​If I trained for 6 months I could probably get to 48secs. I doubt he could do it in less than 1minute. I could probably beat him if he had a 50m head start.”

But Phelps admitted it probably wouldn’t be the same the other way round. When asked if he’d try another sport, the swimmer quipped, “I’d try it, but I’d probably get my arse kicked if I stepped in the ring”

This isn’t the first time Michael Phelps has called on McGregor to man up and get in the pool with him. On August 28 – the day of the Mayweather and McGregor fight – the Under Armour ambassador Tweeted out a challenge to the MMA superstar:

Michael Phelps is no stranger to off-the-wall one-time races. This summer he took to the open ocean to race a shark for The Discovery Channel’s highly publicized Shark Week (spoiler: the shark won). But Phelps might want to be more careful in future. Last week the Olympian took to Instagram to announce his second child was on the way. 

Number 2 on the way!!!! So excited!! Wonder if it's a boy or a girl??

A post shared by Michael Phelps (@m_phelps00) on Aug 29, 2017 at 9:26am PDT

Careful, Michael. You wouldn’t want to go and get hurt. 

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