Author: Chris Roling

Proving a predictable fight can still entertain and exceed expectations, Floyd Mayweather moved to 50-0 on Saturday with a dismissal of Conor McGregor at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. 

Other than the historic hype, the fight panned out as a typical Mayweather affair, with his elusive ways gassing McGregor after a few surprising opening rounds and eventually causing the referee to waive the fight off.

The 10th-round technical knockout was scored at 87-83, 89-82, 89-81 for Mayweather before the stoppage, per MMAjunkie. 

If McGregor seeming out on his feet didn’t convince viewers this one got lopsided after the halfway mark, if not a little earlier, take a look at the fight metrics provided by CompuBox, via ESPN.com’s Arash Markazi:

Major names and perhaps the most lucrative fight in history aside, the breakdown sure seems familiar: Mayweather feels out the competition, Mayweather adapts and whips the competition while being more accurate on fewer punches. Result? Early stoppage or a serious disparity on the scorecards. 

Here we go again, right? McGregor outpaced Mayweather on power punches by more than half and only hit on a fourth of them compared to Mayweather’s 58 percent. The only thing in major favor of McGregor in the numbers above were the first few rounds. 

ESPN Stats & Info illustrated Mayweather’s measured start: 

Go figure—Mayweather takes his time figuring out McGregor while hoping the UFC star accustomed to shorter bouts gasses himself. Ever the showman, Mayweather’s approach also stirs up the entertainment value for fans because it suggests there is a chance he leaves the building 49-1. 

Those first few rounds were, funnily enough, the most entertaining thing involving Mayweather in years, unlike the similarly hyped disappointment that was the fight with Pacquiao in May 2015.

McGregor looked like a natural for a few rounds, always pushing forward and peppering the gloves in a more-is-better approach. Mayweather wasn’t taking too many hits, as per the usual, but the quantity disparity was enough to skew the scorecards.  

But it all seemed by design, which Mayweather confirmed after the match, according to Mike Bohn of Rolling Stone.

“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,” Mayweather said. “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.”

Round 6 and beyond was a snowball McGregor couldn’t prevent from going downhill. Confidence and swagger while on the attack are one thing, but five rounds of whiffs and starting to catch counters in his first professional boxing match looking poised to go the distance had McGregor out of his comfort zone.

“He’s composed, he’s not that fast, he’s not that powerful, but boy, is he composed in there,” McGregor said, according to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael. “I thought it was close, though, and I thought it was a bit of an early stoppage. I was just a little fatigued. He was just a lot more composed with his shots. I have to give it to him, that’s what 50 pro fights will do for you.”

By the end, the stoppage seemed justified, even if McGregor would never admit it (why would he?). He wasn’t defending himself before the referee stepped in and Mayweather was on an all-out assault path by that point, hunting for a knockout.  

While the breakdown here could be copied and pasted to most of Mayweather’s fights, the good news is McGregor fared better than Pacquiao and many others who have stepped in the ring with Money. Startup boxer or not, McGregor certainly has a viable career path here, should he choose to take it.  

While Mayweather likely sits on the coveted 50-0 mark and calls it a career, McGregor’s next move and the impact on this fight actually matching the hype will be an interesting bit of fallout to watch.   

For once, something pegged as historic before it happened met the hype, so it’s no wonder the general reaction to Mayweather-McGregor has been overwhelmingly positive.   

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For the 50th time, Floyd Mayweather Jr. heard his name called, this time after swatting away Conor McGregor on Saturday night in Las Vegas after one of the most hyped fights of all time. 

Boxing, though, emerges as the biggest winner. 

At face value, Mayweather taking on a boxer without a round of significant boxing experience under his belt seemed like a recipe for disaster—no matter which way it turned out. Mayweather wins, the fight is a shrug-worthy affair. He loses to an opponent so green, it casts a shadow of skepticism on the sport itself. 

Other than a brief Showtime hiccup before walkouts, though, Mayweather-McGregor went off in the best possible way. 

Even the result being predictable doesn’t detract from the value of the fight for boxing as a whole. 

This was a typical Mayweather fight. He felt McGregor out for the first few rounds, sending social media into an uproar. Technically speaking, he “lost” the first two rounds while the energetic McGregor spammed the attack. 

Based on numbers from CompuBox, via ESPN.com’s Arash Markazi, McGregor took a few rounds before falling off significantly over the fight’s second half: 

Again, predictable. But few moments in sports as a whole can recreate the feeling of excitement over those first few rounds, the “Is this really happening or possible?” questions capable of making fans around the world feel like the $100 pay-per-view was money well spent. 

And it was. Mayweather did what he does, connecting on almost 60 percent of his 152 power punches. His opponent, like Manny Pacquiao and many before him, threw more trying to hit the elusive legend and missed more in the process, hitting on 25 percent of his more than 330. 

“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,” Mayweather said, according to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael. “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.”

It’s not often sporting events live up to the hype. But after all the trash talk and pre-fight build, McGregor and Mayweather both come out of the bout with pristine legacies and having furthered the sport at a time it could have taken another hit. 

Few who watched the bout would throw criticism McGregor‘s way after going 10 rounds with a 49-0 modern legend firmly in the conversation for best of all time. Even fewer would throw some at Mayweather for fighting his fight, gassing an opponent while dissecting his plan, then going on an onslaught so brutal the referee had to stop a guy who looked out on his feet from taking even more damage. 

After the stoppage, Mayweather even copped to owing fans one after the borderline silly fight with Pacquiao. 

“I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see,” Mayweather said, per Rafael. “I owed them for the Pacquiao fight. I had to come straight ahead and give the fans a show. That’s what I gave them. He’s a lot better than I thought he’d be. He’s a tough competitor, but I was the better man tonight.”

Even if that wasn’t Mayweather’s goal or mindset when making the fight initially, a bout against McGregor might have been the only way to recoup the public’s trust in boxing after the Pacquiao debacle.

Boxing needed Mayweather-McGregor to succeed in the expectations department. The financial side of things was never in question. But burning fans again would have done irreparable damage—and as an aside, casual fans, MMA or otherwise, who hadn’t crossed over have now seen how exciting the sport of boxing can be. 

What started as a seemingly money-grabbing affair above all else delivered in a way capable of producing a trickle-down effect on the rest of boxing as it fights to fit into the mindshare of the modern sports fan.

In this way, the fight does more than prop up each man’s legacy by meeting expectations; it marks a potential rehabbing of sorts for the sport as a whole. Mayweather and McGregor both might be done with boxing, but the rest of the sport can now take the ball and run with it if done properly like Saturday’s event. 

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Briefly, it looked like Conor McGregor had enough to take down Floyd Mayweather Jr. Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. 

Briefly. 

By design or not, McGregor came out firing on all cylinders and won a few rounds. A combination of Mayweather feeling him out and letting him gas himself out seemed likely, which wound up true as referee Robert Byrd stopped the fight early. 

The CompuBox numbers tell the whole story, provided by ESPN.com’s Arash Markazi: 

Even from a stat sheet alone, it isn’t hard to see why Mayweather earned the 10th-round TKO. McGregor outpointed him over the first five rounds, then lost the ensuing rounds in sheer punch totals by more than double. 

As is the case with any Mayweather fight, accuracy played the biggest role in McGregor needing a referee to step in and stop the onslaught: Money landed 58 percent of his 152 power punches, McGregor 25 percent of his 332. 

Predictable finish? Sure. But the fight did its job by entertaining fans, especially right after the opening bell, which showed more life than the hyped Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight ever did. 

And it made both guys droves of money. Scrooge McDuck’s pool level of cash. 

According to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, Money secured a guaranteed figure of $100 million that would likely hit north of $200 million. McGregor only got $30 million as a minimum but would likely end up flirting with the $100 million mark. 

It was easy to scoff at similar numbers after the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. For all the hype there, Mayweather toyed with another legend on the way to an easy win. Pre-fight expectations had presumed the fight would have more action (even after 50, folks still expect it with Money for some reason) and a thrilling finish. 

Low expectations providing a better reaction here or not, even someone like UFC President Dana White seemed happy with the final result, per Sports Illustrated: 

“I was happy with the stoppage,” White said. “Conor was tired, and I didn’t want to see two more rounds of that. This isn’t what he does. He came in; he fought Mayweather at his game.”

McGregor, as expected, didn’t necessarily agree with the early stoppage, yet tipped the hat to Mayweather’s prowess. Markazi provided the quotes: 

The takeaways here are simple. Mayweather, in an odd sort of way, was the perfect straight-up boxing opponent for McGregor because of his passive style. A more aggressive boxer might have ended the fight earlier. 

McGregor could easily keep working on his skill here and launch a solid career. But as White would probably attest, it is better for him to get back into the Octagon and continue his run there. And Mayweather? He now has his 50-0 record and can fully fade away if he wants, though the allure of a rematch won’t go away. 

Feel free to call Saturday the perfect storm. Mayweather and McGregor sat atop their respective sports, are experts in pre-fight trash talk, have rabid fanbases and provided a safe event exceeding expectations while entertaining on the way to a predictable finish. 

If viewers come away happy from the investment, even if the scorecard could’ve been predicted accurately beforehand, the event goes down as a success.

Everybody, McGregor included, scores a win in the legacy department for delivering on what seemed like unrealistic levels of hype. 

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It’s hard to drown out the NFL, yet the impending encounter between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor will do just that beginning Friday and on through the weekend. 

The almost ridiculous trash talk in the build to the fight that features eye-popping financial numbers will hit its peak on Friday, when the two legends of their respective sports meet at the weigh-in before disappearing until it is time to dance. 

Based on some of the crazy moments leading to this point already, feel free to file the weigh-in under the can’t-miss affair umbrella. Here is a look at the info surrounding Friday and the pay-per-view itself.  

Mayweather vs. McGregor Viewing Info

Date: Saturday, Aug. 26

Start Time: 9 p.m. ET (main card)

Watch: pay-per-view ($99.95)

Mayweather-McGregor Fight Card Odds

Floyd Mayweather (-450) vs. Conor McGregor (+325; bet $100 to win $325), super welterweight

Badou Jack (-355) Nathan Cleverly (+290), light heavyweight

Andrew Tabiti (-310) vs. Steve Cunningham (+260), cruiserweight

Gervonta Davis (-3500) Francisco Fonseca (+1300), junior lightweight

Weigh-In Information 

T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas plays host to what is likely going to be a crazy time as McGregor and Mayweather step on scales before descending into trash talk. The event starts at 4:30 p.m. ET, though fans will likely want to at least keep an eye on social media before then. 

Showtime will have the official online live stream, where one of the main talking points will be, of course, money. 

Money, meaning Money’s money. The man known for gigantic guaranteed payouts regardless of opponent has another on his hands here, with Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole reporting Mayweather’s big payout will be revealed to the public during the broadcast: 

Even if the number is a bit off the mark, it’ll be interesting to hear how both men are splitting the pot. This isn’t exactly an event where one fighter like a Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao can take the much larger portion and call it a day. 

No, McGregor is a gigantic draw on his own. And if we’re being honest, fans anticipating this spectacle have him to thank for it existing at all—his trash talk is a big part of the reason Mayweather came out of an apparent retirement. 

Back in July, McGregor was in prime form the first time the two actually stepped in the squared circle, as captured by UFC Europe: 

That isn’t to suggest Mayweather didn’t offer some hilarity of his own, which Sports Illustrated provided: 

Mayweather at least has fallen back a bit more recently and seems intent on avoiding being sucked into a war of words. It’s a somewhat odd development from the man nicknamed Money, but something worth noting. 

Here is his level-headed talk during a presser on Wednesday, courtesy of CBSSports.com’s Brian Campbell: 

Meaning, fans shouldn’t really know what to expect at the weigh-in, other than both guys coming in at the required 154 pounds and likely making a scene of doing it. The unknowns range from whether we’ll still get humble Mayweather to a number of dollar signs thrown around by both parties. 

What fans do know, at least, is how Las Vegas oddsmakers feel about the fight. The lines above predictably lean in Mayweather’s favor, though an air of unpredictably surrounding McGregor has things closer than they might end up having any right of being. 

Then again, the closer-than-expected odds could be a way to garner more interest in this fight than it deserves. Both guys are great mouthpieces, but only one is a boxing legend sitting on a 49-0 record and only one is a guy with zero actual rounds of boxing that matters on his resume. 

No matter how it turns out, Friday is bound to be a good time for fans invested in this megafight. A fight brought to life via trash talk and hype won’t have any problems captivating an audience for an hour and creating a tidal wave of buzz that will last until official introductions on Sunday night.

Odds via OddsShark.   

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