Something I never imagined would ever happen, happened. On 26th August 2017, Conor McGregor met Floyd Mayweather in the boxing ring in a highly-anticipated million-dollar bout. Everything about this fight was crazy. The money involved, the press tours, the trash talk, the promos, everything! The only thing that wasn’t crazy and unexpected was the result and how it all went down.
Mayweather always starts off slow, takes his time, reads his opponents, understands their movements, tires them up, and then dominates after 2 or 3 rounds. That’s exactly what he did in this fight. It was all too predictable. Mayweather doesn’t mind losing a few rounds to collect all the data he needs to perfect his distance, timing, footwork, and shot selection. The fact that McGregor has one of the worst cardios in the fight game made it a lot easier for Mayweather.
McGregor was never really in it. Yes, he clearly won the first three rounds, but that’s because Mayweather was taking his time to read and understand Conor’s unorthodox and awkward movements. The stat about how McGregor landed more punches on Floyd than Canelo Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao looks impressive on paper, but it is misleading. Very few of those punches, if any, caused any significant damage. Conor McGregor did not cause any real trouble to a 40-year-old boxer who came out of retirement after 2 years and fought against his usual defensive style.
Mayweather fought the perfect fight. He promised before the fight that he would come forward and be more aggressive for the fans, to make up for the boring fight against Manny Pacquiao. He did exactly that, and it made the fight entertaining.
I’m not a fan of McGregor or Mayweather, so I was neutral for the most part. The press tours were fun and McGregor clearly won the four-round trash-talk battle against Mayweather. The only good thing about being neutral is that you can enjoy the fight without stressing out about the result. However, not having a favorite does take away the fun and excitement to a certain extent. As the fight came closer, I made my pick and it was Mayweather.
Even though I’ve never been a fan of Mayweather’s boxing style, this was the first time I wanted him to win. There are a couple of reasons why I wanted McGregor to lose. I have nothing against Conor, he’s one of the best MMA fighters. It’s his fanboys that annoy me.
Conor McGregor and his fanboys were so cocky and arrogant in the build-up. It was as if McGregor was fighting an amateur boxer and not the greatest of all time. McGregor was just selling the fight and as always, he did a great job at that. But his fans are a deluded bunch. They showed absolutely no respect towards Mayweather’s skill set and didn’t even give him a chance. Anyone who has a decent knowledge about combat sports will tell you that McGregor stood no chance against Mayweather in a boxing match. In fact, McGregor would have done well to last all 12 rounds.
Yes, it was McGregor’s first boxing match, but you can’t use that as an excuse after going on and on about how he’d knock Mayweather out in under 4 rounds for a good part of 2 months.
McGregor fans are now arguing that Conor would beat Floyd in an MMA fight. Of course he would. Boxing is a part of MMA, but there is so much more to MMA than just boxing. It would take years for Mayweather or any other boxer to develop MMA skills like jiu-jitsu. It’s like saying we lost to you in Football, but we’d beat you in Rugby.
Mayweather is arguably the greatest boxer of all time, but everything wasn’t perfect for him coming into this fight. Floyd is 40 years old, he had been retired from boxing for more than 2 years, he was pinned against a southpaw with unorthodox and awkward movements, and he decided to adopt an aggressive approach instead of his usual defensive style so as to make the fight more entertaining for the fans. The ring rust showed. Mayweather and his fans could have used all of this as an excuse as to why McGregor was able to last as many as 10 rounds. But hey, no one’s talking about it.
McGregor has the worst set of fans on social media, and they were out in full force ever since the fight was announced. This should shut them up for at least a couple of months.
Conor McGregor is a champion fighter and I’m sure he’ll bounce back in style, but this time in the octagon not the boxing ring.
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