When the dust settled in Las Vegas Saturday night, the fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. had takeaways that should send everyone home happy.
Money walked away from the fight with his perfect record extended to 50-0. The Notorious came away a very wealthy man who put up a similar fight to every other boxer who has tried to beat Mayweather. Fans were treated to a wildly entertaining fight right up to the 10th-round stoppage.
Everybody wins.
The fact that it was an entertaining fight may have been a shock to some, but the bout simply followed a pattern that most Mayweather fights follow. The difference is that McGregor is a bit more aggressive than your average Money opponent, and the boxing legend was more willing to exchange.
The pattern that was evident was that of the slow start from Mayweather followed by a strong comeback. ESPN Stats & Info provided the numbers around the basic outline:
The first three rounds set up an interesting contest from the jump. Many didn’t know what to expect in the opening moments of this bout, as McGregor was making his boxing debut. The slow start for Mayweather allowed McGregor to get his own game going.
Notorious came out swinging and looked to take control of the bout. He did so through sheer volume and activity but wasn’t efficient, as evidenced by his percentage of punches landed in the early going.
As ShoStats noted, he threw a staggering 140 power punches through the first four rounds.
It was a double-edged sword for Notorious. While he was able to take control of the fight early and make it exciting, it was reminiscent of his first fight with Nate Diaz. In that fight, McGregor threw an impressive 74 significant strikes in the first five-minute round, per FightMetric.
The volume gave him the upper hand in the round, but it ultimately lost him the war. He came out in the second round of that fight clearly gassed, and Diaz was able to get the finish in the next round.
In the rematch, McGregor cut down his first-round output to just 58 significant strikes, picked his shots and won a five-round decision. If Notorious made any mistakes that could have changed the outcome of the fight, it was that he didn’t understand the boxing concept of taking rounds off.
In all, McGregor threw 323 power punches, which means that roughly 43 percent of the output in the 10-round fight came from the first four rounds, per ShoStats:
In his post-fight interview, McGregor admitted that fatigue played a big role in his undoing. Where he gets a little more leeway to recover in boxing, referee Robert Byrd was quick to put a stop to the fight as McGregor stumbled his way to the stoppage.
“I was just a little fatigued. He was just a lot more composed with his shots,” McGregor said of the stoppage, per Luke Brown of The Independent. “When you’re in here in the squared circle, everything is different. Let the man put me down, that’s fatigue, that’s not damage.”
While Mayweather got the win, the question of whether McGregor could compete was answered with a resounding yes. Money got the finish, but not before McGregor landed 111 punches against one of the best defensive boxers ever.
The Notorious’ punch count was higher than Manny Pacquiao’s and in the neighborhood of Canelo Alvarez‘s, who fought Mayweather to a majority decision. Iain Kidd of Bloody Elbow noted the comparison:
His performance at least opens the door to a return fight in boxing at some point. While McGregor is already a proven championship fighter in MMA, he proved he could also hang in the sweet science.
Losing to Mayweather doesn’t mean that McGregor isn’t a good boxer. If anything, it only proved that McGregor is similar to the rest of the boxing world in their inability to sustain success against Money over the course of 12 rounds.
Just like the Diaz fight it will be interesting to see what adjustments McGregor would make if he ever returns to boxing. After that performance, there would certainly be a market for it.
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