--- title: Michael Phelps Challenged Conor McGregor to a Race description: The Olympic swimmer just invited the famous fighter for a match-up — in the pool, not the ring. canonical: https://time.com/4922125/michael-phelps-conor-mcgregor-race/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-30T20:26:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:56.309Z og:title: Michael Phelps Just Challenged Conor McGregor to a Race og:description: Might McGregor step out of the ring and into the pool? og:url: https://time.com/4922125/michael-phelps-conor-mcgregor-race/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b07a8f88e69ac5c/6988a412cd1bba039b7021fb/michael-phelps-fan.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: michael-phelps-fan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michael Phelps Just Challenged Conor McGregor to a Race twitter:description: Might McGregor step out of the ring and into the pool? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b07a8f88e69ac5c/6988a412cd1bba039b7021fb/michael-phelps-fan.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michael Phelps Just Challenged Conor McGregor to a Race > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 30, 2017 8:26 PM UTC  Michael Phelps attends the 2016 MTV Music Video Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. Michael Phelps attends the 2016 MTV Music Video Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris—2016 WireImage  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 30, 2017 8:26 PM UTC It’s been less than a week since [Conor McGregor](http://time.com/4917401/mayweather-mcgregor-ufc-results/) faced [Floyd Mayweather](http://time.com/money/4916037/floyd-mayweather-conor-mcgregor-money-will-they-make-saturday-fight/) in the boxing ring, but the mixed martial artist already has another challenger lined up to battle him in a meeting of world-class athleticism. And this time, the popular Irish fighter is being asked to step outside the ring. Swimmer Michael Phelps, the world’s [most decorated Olympian](http://time.com/4920983/michael-phelps-baby-two/), just threw down the gauntlet on Twitter, extending a challenge to McGregor. “All of this talk… should we race as well?” Phelps asked on Twitter. McGregor stepped outside of his lane to compete against Mayweather over the weekend in the much-hyped boxing match. McGregor had never boxed professionally before, focusing on his career with the UFC. Meanwhile, Phelps himself has recently had some unconventional competitors in the water: he took to the open ocean this summer to [race a (simulated) shark.](http://time.com/4852310/michael-phelps-shark-week-interview/) The Internet is, of course, intrigued by this unexpected potential match-up. With ringside seats for the Mayweather-McGregor match running [a hefty $10,000 a pop](http://time.com/money/4916037/floyd-mayweather-conor-mcgregor-money-will-they-make-saturday-fight/), many are also seeing the dollar signs for both athletes if they should choose to move forward with the stunt set-up. > [](https://twitter.com/MichaelPhelps/status/902564036012736513) > [](https://twitter.com/immarstheg/status/902564962580738049) > [](https://twitter.com/Johnny2Clutch/status/902641977593925636) > [](https://twitter.com/Owen616/status/902595298442268672) McGregor, for his part, has not yet responded to Phelps’ challenge. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4922125/michael-phelps-conor-mcgregor-race/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4922125/michael-phelps-conor-mcgregor-race/"},"headline":"Michael Phelps Just Challenged Conor McGregor to a Race","datePublished":"2017-08-30T20:26:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:56.309Z","description":"The Olympic swimmer just invited the famous fighter for a match-up — in the pool, not the ring.","url":"https://time.com/4922125/michael-phelps-conor-mcgregor-race/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Michael Phelps","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b07a8f88e69ac5c/6988a412cd1bba039b7021fb/michael-phelps-fan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b07a8f88e69ac5c/6988a412cd1bba039b7021fb/michael-phelps-fan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"michael-phelps-fan","caption":"Michael Phelps attends the 2016 MTV Music Video Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City.","creditText":"Dimitrios Kambouris—2016 WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4922125/michael-phelps-conor-mcgregor-race/","name":"Michael Phelps Just Challenged Conor McGregor to a Race"}}]}] ```