Floyd Mayweather Jr. used greater stamina and superior punching power to stop Conor McGregor in the 10th round and win by technical knockout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday.
The bout was stopped with Mayweather teeing off on the visibly exhausted 29-year-old star of the UFC. Brian Campbell of CBS Sports showed how the bout was scored at the time:
Mayweather made the fight one-sided thanks to a simple gameplan focused on wearing McGregor down by forcing him into a lengthy test of endurance. Afterwards, “Money” spelled out his simple yet effective strategy, per ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael:
“Our game plan was to take our time, go to him, let him shoot his shots early and then take him out down the stretch. We know in MMA he fights for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, he started to slow down. I guaranteed to everybody that this wouldn’t go the distance.”
Even early on, McGregor seemed to struggle with lasting the pace. He was quick off the mark during the opening two rounds but didn’t make the most of the clean punches he managed to land.
Instead, Mayweather bided his time and steadily grew into the fight. His willingness to work the body through rounds three to five and knock the wind out of McGregor proved a key part of his plan to exploit the Irishman’s lack of stamina.
Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com felt it was a worrying sign to see McGregor sagging so early:
It was a sentiment also expressed one round later by Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com:
Mayweather picked his moments and his punches well, correctly sensing the time was ripe to up the pace in Round 7. His array of jabs to the body and face left McGregor bloodied and wheezing as the bell sounded.
From this point, Mayweather was never in any trouble, and it was just a matter of time before he finished a tiring McGregor off. Mayweather was content to stick and move during the eighth, probably knowing he had a sizeable advantage in points to lean on.
He turned up the heat further in the ninth, with McGregor barely escaping the round still in the fight but still looking gassed, per Helwani:
Referee Robert Byrd rightly called a stop to things in the 10th, with a lethargic McGregor pinned against the ropes and open to a relentless barrage of punches. The wilting state of McGregor at the time of the stoppage vindicated Mayweather’s strategy to draw the fight out and prolong the punishment.
It was a logical approach, since McGregor’s days in the UFC had hardly prepared him for this lengthy a bout. In fact, numbers from ESPN Stats & Info show how the Irishman had been used to making much quicker work of his recent opponents in the Octagon:
Mayweather had boxed a smart fight against an opponent lacking his ring savvy. Yet his victory wasn’t just down to superior conditioning.
The man who ended the night 50-0 for his career also landed the more powerful punches, even after McGregor had come out swinging to start.
McGregor landed some strong shots early, including a formidable uppercut and several stinging right-handed jabs. In total, the Irishman landed more shots on Mayweather than many decorated boxing greats had managed, per SportsCenter:
The problem for McGregor was most of his punches lacked power after the early stages, once he notably began to tire. By contrast, Mayweather’s hitting power grew as the fight wore on.
He landed more of the telling shots as he found his rhythm during the bout:
In the end, Mayweather had made wise use of the experience accrued during his previous 49 professional fights. He dictated the pace, ensuring he would exploit McGregor’s suspect endurance, while also making more efficient use of his punches to land the more damaging blows when it counted.
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