UFC featherweight Jeremy Stephens will probably never be the biggest Conor McGregor fan, but even he admits that matching up the UFC lightweight champion against Floyd Mayweather in a mixed martial arts fight would be an act of gross negligence.

The fact is, even with Mayweather's tremendous boxing skills, he would be a huge underdog to almost anyone on the UFC roster, much less someone as experienced and as talented as McGregor.

Stephens considers himself an admirer of Mayweather's work in the ring but believes it would be a very bad idea for him to try to cross over into MMA.

"I've seen boxers come over, and they don't know what it's like to get in there and get kicked, to worry about a takedown, a level change, or something spinning," Stephens said when speaking to FloCombat. "They just don't understand it.

"In typical boxing, you're not going to get your legs kicked off, your forearms smacked in. That's going to be a problem."

For all the chatter about Mayweather facing McGregor in a rematch under mixed martial arts rules, Stephens sees an alternative that might work for the 50-0 boxer should he decide to fight in the UFC. 

But it won't be against the 29-year-old Irishman. 

Instead, Stephens says a much more even matchup would be Mayweather stepping into the cage against former WWE superstar CM Punk, who made his professional MMA debut back in 2016 when he was submitted by welterweight prospect Mickey Gall.

All jokes aside, Stephens feels like that would be a test of equals versus throwing Mayweather to the lions by having him fight McGregor.

"If Floyd Mayweather was to come over, people are putting memes up of CM Punk. That would be more realistic," Stephens said. "A guy like that. A guy that's not experienced. A guy at that level. If he comes over here, it's a whole other ball game. Floyd's older, he's the best of the best at what he does, he's got a great mind for boxing, for selling out stadiums and he's all about money and the show.

"I feel like that's what he's doing. He's keeping his name hot, he's promoting and he's still getting paid doing Instagram videos."

The talk about Mayweather coming to the UFC might be fun, but Stephens doesn't see any way it ever actually happens.

"Do I think he's going to come over to MMA? I highly doubt it," Stephens said. "If he does, it's going to be under a specific set of rules and where 'Money' Mayweather is running the show as always."

By Damon Martin