Bob Costas Responds To Vince McMahon Wanting To Fight Him During 2001 HBO Interview

Bob Costas has responded to Vince McMahon's declaration that he wanted to fight him during their interview on HBO in 2001, describing the WWE Chairman's whole premise for the fight as 'idiotic'.

McMahon sat down with Costas for an in-depth discussion 20 years ago, at a time when McMahon's XFL project was severely declining in viewership and the content of his WWE product was under question. 

In a new book by Jim Miller, entitled 'Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers', McMahon has reflected on the interview, saying he would have liked to beat up Costas if the interviewer was taller and bigger. 

Costas has now responded to McMahon's admission, saying the premise for McMahon's proposed fight is 'idiotic'.

Speaking on STWeekly, Costas noted that McMahon has made such comments in the past before saying: "Here's my answer to this. Let's test Vince's premise. He probably outweighed my two to one. I weighed around 150. He might've weighed, especially then, certainly 275 minimum, maybe 300 pounds. Who knows what might have enhanced that physical standing.

"In any case, his premise is, 'if Bob and I were closer in size, his line of questioning was ticking me off and we would've come to blows and I would have beat the crap out of him'.

"Let's test this premise. Let's suppose somebody is on Meet The Press and they don't like Chuck Todd's line of questioning. They are a congressman or senator, and like Chuck, they are roughly 5'10'' to six feet tall and weigh between 175 and 185. They are in the same weight class. It would be entirely appropriate for the senator from whatever state to just go to blows. Think about that.

"Think about this premise. 'I don't like your line of questioning, but as long as it's a fair fight, I should be allowed to kick the sh*t out of you.' Brilliant. Do you really have to respond to something that stupid? On its base, it's idiotic.

"What really ticked him off was this...it's obvious he was getting angry. It was great TV and people are still talking about it. I didn't expect it to go this way, but when it did and he went off, it didn't throw me off.

"He's not dumb. If you look at a transcript of this, it might've been a draw. On tone, he's losing his sh*t and I'm like, 'Okay, let's proceed.' If this was supposed to throw me off, it didn't work."

H/T Fightful