The fans. The media. The other assembled experts.
Nearly everyone who’d entered the T-Mobile Arena with an open mind Saturday night seemed to share a similar viewpoint as they headed back into the Las Vegas desert.
Floyd Mayweather gave the people thei…
The fans. The media. The other assembled experts.
Nearly everyone who’d entered the T-Mobile Arena with an open mind Saturday night seemed to share a similar viewpoint as they headed back into the Las Vegas desert.
After a decade in which his paths to victories were paved by full-time defensive mastery and intermittent violent intent, the version of Mayweather that squared off with boxing newbie Conor McGregor was almost unrecognizable by comparison.
From the moment he emerged for a Mortal Kombat-inspired ring walk to the moment he forced referee Robert Byrd to rescue a sagging McGregor along the ropes, Mayweather displayed the sort of fire his detractors had been clamoring for since the moment Money became his primary obsession.
“I wanted to go out with a bang to give the fans what they wanted to see,” Mayweather told Sal Paolantonio during ESPN’s post-fight coverage. “I didn’t want to give the fans a boring fight.”
There was little chance of that given the strategy offered by McGregor, who didn’t charge forward in the early rounds but instead put Mayweather in the uncomfortable position of setting the pace. The 29-year-old Irishman had his best moments during those early periods, out-landing Mayweather in Rounds 1, 2 and 3 before his 40-year-old foe began taking over.
Both men landed 16 shots in the fourth, and Mayweather connected on more in each subsequent round until Byrd jumped in at 1:05 of the 10th.
Overall, he landed 170 punches to McGregor’s 111, including 152 of 261 power punches—a connect rate of 58 percent.
“I kept my composure. I knew I would take some shots,” Mayweather said. “We came on in the second half. We had a game plan. Our game plan worked tonight.”
Andre Ward, one of the few fighters capable of ascending to the pound-for-pound heights that Mayweather has long staked out, agreed in his Saturday night role as an ESPN analyst.
“This was the best you could ask for,” he said. “McGregor overperformed and Floyd Mayweather did exactly what he was supposed to do.”
It resulted in the first non-asterisked stoppage for Mayweather since his 2007 demolition of another European import, Ricky Hatton, who, like McGregor, led a raucous band of countrymen to Nevada and had some good moments before also failing to get out of the 10th round.
In his nine fights between Hatton and McGregor—not including the controversial knockout of a distracted Victor Ortiz in 2011—Mayweather rarely lost a round but scored only one knockdown, against Juan Manuel Marquez, and rarely raised pay-per-view buyers to anything approaching titillation.
In fact, his 2015 megafight with Manny Pacquiao, whose PPV sales record of 4.6 million may be in jeopardy by the time the final Saturday tallies are totaled, is remembered more for the feeling of buyer’s remorse it created rather than the compelling competition it yielded.
That won’t be the case this time around.
Or at least it shouldn’t be.
Though some will focus on McGregor’s lack of ring experience and others will insist any stoppage is early if it comes before a flatline EEG, the correct takeaway is recognition that Mayweather had a young, strong lion in front of him and employed the right strategy to deal with him—delivering a suitable career swan song with some action and a far more entertaining event than he had recently provided.
“This is a part of history,” he told Paolantonio. “There are so many champions that paved the way for me to be where I am today.”
A 50-0 record cements his boxing legacy. A $1 billion bankroll certifies his business acumen.
And, perhaps most importantly, not many will lament the money spent to see it.
Combat athletes are not like the average person.
They’re millionaires—sometimes billionaires—who spend their prizefighting days in racing clock and calendar to make as much money as they can before body and mind betray them. It’s an ar…
Combat athletes are not like the average person.
They’re millionaires—sometimes billionaires—who spend their prizefighting days in racing clock and calendar to make as much money as they can before body and mind betray them. It’s an arduous lifestyle that most people could never stand.
Doctors, similarly, are not like the average person.
They’re devoted professionals who spend their days in clinics and labs, researching and enacting best practices in the name of improving and extending human life at the cost of their own time and effort. It, too, is an arduous lifestyle that most people could never stand.
Needless to say, when the interests of combat athletes and doctors intersect, opinions and conclusions diverge. Such is the case leading into Saturday night’s megafight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor.
Earlier this week the Association of Ringside Physicians gave notice that it is not only concerned about the merits of the Mayweather-McGregor extravaganza, but it’s so concerned that it considers McGregor to be more or less in mortal peril simply by entering the ring.
On its face, that’s reasonable: Mayweather is a master of the refined violence of the squared circle, 49-0 and rarely ever mussed with an opponent’s glove in that time. McGregor is 0-0 as a boxer, an experienced hand-fighter in MMA but one who has earned his crack at Mayweather more through drawing power than dropping boxers.
Whether or not the ARP is correct is one thing, but what its membership might do on Saturday night is another. A ringside physician has a role to play in any combat sports event, and the message is already clear on this one: McGregor will not be unduly harmed on their watch.
How might that look once the athletes are in the ring?
You can be assured the referee and ringside physician will have a particularly shrewd eye on McGregor throughout the night, and if there are signs of trouble, they’ll be calling the whole thing off. Those signs might include loss of coordination, spacey looks or hastily devolving technical acumen, among other things.
You can be assured the Nevada Athletic Commission, already with the cash in its coffers thanks to Mayweather and his money-printing promotional machine, will back the decision 100 percent. With the money made through chaining McGregor to Andre Ward somehow and randomly approving eight-ounce gloves for a 154-pound fight, now would be the time to say they’re not interested in seeing a fighter get hurt in their jurisdiction.
You can be assured Mayweather, a beloved citizen to Nevada bureaucrats for that very tendency to make money for the state, will be complimentary to his opponent for being so willful while being so outclassed. He’ll ride into the sunset with 50 straight boxing wins, an unprecedented number for an underappreciated craftsman, and count his dollars all the way to the strip club.
And you can be assured McGregor would be outraged, no matter how good or bad a decision to stop the fight for medical reasons is in the moment, because he is a combat athlete, and a combat athlete would rather die than have the fight taken away from them—another reminder they are not like the average person.
Yet in the face of it all, the doctor and his or her backers at the ARP won’t bat an eyelash.
There will be no comment on Mayweather’s grace or McGregor’s mettle, only the act of intervening in the best interest of a party in trouble and too stubborn to pull the rip cord for themselves.
McGregor might well have taken the fight against Mayweather in the name of “Bruce Lee s–t,” as he sneered at a press conference this week. On fight night, though, if it goes as badly as the worst prognostications fear, it may end up looking like he took it in the name of having more guts than brains.
That’s why the ARP has a voice and why a doctor will be there with the power to stop the whole spectacle.
It’s immense power, and it’s a voice that must be heard above all others.
Finally, after over a year of negotiating and hype, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is set to face Conor McGregor on Saturday evening at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in Nevada and on Showtime pay-per-view.
Mayweather currently holds -375 (bet $375 to …
Finally, after over a year of negotiating and hype, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is set to face ConorMcGregor on Saturday evening at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in Nevada and on Showtime pay-per-view.
Mayweather currently holds -375 (bet $375 to win $100) odds to win the fight, per Oddsshark.com, while McGregor is being given +285 odds in the fight. While it might be tempting to take McGregor‘s excellent odds, it’s not the smart play.
Consider this.
ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael and Brett Okamoto broke the fight into six categories: defense, endurance, durability, speed, power and experience. They both gave Mayweather the advantage in defense, endurance, speed and experience and were split on durability. McGregor‘s only clear advantage in this fight, then, would appear to be power.
Now, power is a good advantage to have. Power gives you the ability to end a fight in one punch. Power can wear down an opponent and make them sloppy in the later rounds.
But Mayweather hasn’t often had the power advantage in his fights, and it’s never mattered. His speed, defense and boxing IQ allow him to dart in and out of an opponent’s guard and escape the most dangerous of blows.
Betting on McGregor outright is too risky, then, but betting on Mayweather won’t exactly bring the greatest return. So prop bets might be the better play in this matchup.
For example, Mayweather is -135 to win by any of knockout, technical knockout or disqualification, while he’s +250 to win by either a decision or technical decision, per Oddsshark.com. Even more specifically, he’s +325 to win by unanimous decision, +450 to win by knockout, +240 to win by technical knockout, +800 to win by disqualification, +1600 to win by majority decision and +3300 to win by technical decision.
The more specific you are willing to get, obviously, the more favorable odds you can acquire. That’s probably a pretty smart route in this fight, where just about everyone believes Mayweather will win. If you have a strong inclination, say, that Mayweather will win by knockout, that is a smart place to put your money. If you believe that the fight will go the distance and McGregor might actually keep things close, there is big money in betting on a Mayweather majority decision.
Interestingly, the odds of McGregor winning by a knockout are just +325. Contrast that to his odds of winning a split decision (+2500), majority decision (+3300) or unanimous decision (+3300). It’s pretty clear Vegas believes McGregor has a slight chance of securing a knockout given his power, but the chances of him going the distance and winning on points is an extreme long shot.
It’s official: the fight is on between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor.
The August 26 bout has been on the books since June, when the two camps signed on for Saturday’s main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But it wasn’t until Friday’s wei…
It’s official: the fight is on between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and ConorMcGregor.
The August 26 bout has been on the books since June, when the two camps signed on for Saturday’s main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But it wasn’t until Friday’s weigh-in that Mayweather and McGregor were deemed ready to step into the ring.
Both combatants came in under the 154-pound super welterweight limit. Mayweather Jr. tipped the scales at 149.5 pounds, just above his usual 147 pounds at welterweight, while McGregor came in at 153 pounds.
“That’s the worst shape I’ve ever seen him in,” McGregor said afterwards, per USA Today Sports’ Martin Rogers. “I am a professional. I make weight. I am in peak physical condition, everyone can tell I am ready. I will be a lot bigger (than this), and a lot bigger than him. I see a man afraid.”
Mayweather, though, has seemed anything but fearful in the lead-up to this mega-fight. He’s even bragged about eating out at Burger King—hardly the kind of grub one might expect a finely tuned athlete to take in.
“Gotta keep that weight on,” Mayweather said previously on the UFC Embedded YouTube series, per For The Win’s Luke Kerr-Dineen.
(Video contains profanity.)
He won’t have to for much longer. Win or lose, Mayweather will be toasting his latest massive payday on Saturday night, perhaps with a third retirement on the horizon. The odds, though, point to Mayweather emerging from the ring a perfect 50-0.
Odds, per OddsShark: Mayweather -450, McGregor +325
Fight Time: Coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET on Showtime PPV, with Mayweather-McGregor scheduled to start at 11:55 p.m. ET.
Before Mayweather and McGregor touch gloves, boxing fans will be treated to a triple-header of title fights:
Andrew Tabiti (14-0, 12 KOs) vs. Steve Cunningham (29-8-1, 13 KOs), cruiserweight
Badou Jack (21-1-2, 12 KOs) vs. Nathan Cleverly (30-3, 16 KOs), light heavyweight
*Gervonta Davis (18-0, 17 KOs) vs. Francisco Fonseca (19-0-1, 13 KOs), super featherweight
Davis can’t win the title after failing to make weight.
Mayweather-McGregor is without a championship at stake, though. When Mayweather retired in September 2015, he did so with a slew of welterweight crowns in his collection. Of the six main titles in that weight class, four are currently split between Keith Thurman (WBA Super and WBC), Lamont Peterson (WBA Regular), Errol Spence (IBF) and Jeff Horn (WBO), with two (The Ring and lineal) still vacant.
Neither should mind the lack of hardware at stake, though. Both fighters figure to take home nine-figure paydays, thanks in large part to what could be a record-breaking count of pay-per-view buys at $99.95 apiece.
Most signs (if not all) point to Mayweather emerging victorious. As much as McGregor‘s advantages in size, reach, youth (29 vs. the 40-year-old Floyd) and recency of his last fight of any kind (November 2016 vs. Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205), his sheer lack of experience in a boxing ring leaves him playing catch-up.
That would be the case against any professional boxer, let alone one of the best to ever lace them up. If McGregor can land some big blows early on, he could muster an outside shot at what would go down as one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Otherwise, he’ll have a tough time hanging with an elusive defensive maestro like Mayweather, who should win handily.
(Video contains profanity.)
For one day more, at least, these two looked like they were on equal footing on Friday. McGregor, draped in the Irish flag, was cheered on by a throng of his countrymen. That same audience showered Mayweather with boos, though he had the support of his father, Floyd Sr., and his usual brigade of bodyguards.
When the two met face to face one final time, McGregor railed off a flurry of inaudible trash talk while Mayweather stood silently, perhaps waiting for his chance to fight back on Saturday.
If you can’t wait until midnight ET for your fill of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor, never fear: Coverage of Saturday’s boxing superfight, along with the triple-header undercard, begins well before then.
You can begin getting your fix of pre-f…
If you can’t wait until midnight ET for your fill of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and ConorMcGregor, never fear: Coverage of Saturday’s boxing superfight, along with the triple-header undercard, begins well before then.
You can begin getting your fix of pre-fight fun on FOX and FOX Deportes at 6 p.m. ET with a one-hour special. The warm-up fights—all of which will have titles on the line—start at 7 p.m. ET, with the broadcast coverage of Mayweather-McGregor switching to Showtime PPV at 9 p.m. ET.
Should you still be jonesing for more after the bout, tune into FS1 and FOX Deportes for the postfight show.
Coverage Details
Where: T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
When: Saturday, August 26 at 9 p.m. ET
Watch: Showtime PPV, UFC, Sling TV, PlayStation 4
Countdown Special Live Stream: FOX Sports Go (6 p.m. ET)
Fight Preview
McGregor has heard it all by now.
That he has no chance against Mayweather. That his inexperience will leave him exposed against one of the best boxers of all time. That he shouldn’t expect to land a clean punch, let alone knock out Mayweather or compete with him on the judges’ scorecards. That the outcome of this bout is a foregone conclusion.
“It’s certainly motivating,” McGregor told ESPN’s Dan Rafael.
On measurable alone, McGregor looks like a worthy opponent. He’s 11 years younger and an inch taller than Mayweather, with a two-inch advantage on his reach. At Friday’s weigh-in, he tipped the scales at 153 pounds—under the 154-pound super-welterweight limit and over Mayweather’s 149.5 pounds—and figures to carry more weight than that into the ring once he’s properly hydrated.
But as Mayweather noted, per USA Today’s Sports’ Martin Rogers, “Weight doesn’t win fights. Fighting wins fights.”
McGregor isn’t a slouch in that regard, either. He was as close to a boxer as you’d find in the UFC and suffered his only three losses in MMA by submission. He’s plenty capable of delivering powerful punches and—just as importantly—has the chin to take his fair share in return.
Still, McGregor won’t have the benefit of using his legs and feet to fight. Nor will all of the techniques to he’s accustomed to in the Octagon be legal in the ring.
Mayweather, meanwhile, knows the rules—and, in turn, how to exploit them—as well as anyone. Such is the benefit of being born into a boxing family.
He’s faced more than a few free-swingers like McGregor in his time, and those opponents had boxed professionally before. If Mayweather can bait seasoned fighters into miscues, what hope does McGregor have of avoiding the same fate as Floyd’s previous 49 foes?
Though there won’t be any belts hanging in the balance, Mayweather has ample motivation to come out on top—and not just the massive purse he’ll likely take home. A win would not only keep his record unblemished but also make him the first-ever undefeated champion with 50 wins.
That addition could go a long way toward bolstering his case as the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time. So, too, might his victory boost boxing over mixed martial arts in the fierce fight for pre-eminence among combat sports.
McGregor, on the other hand, has nothing to lose, which might be his most dangerous edge of all.
As the hours tick down before the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor showdown on Saturday night, the only thing more exciting than debating why McGregor has a chance to win is the list of prop bets available to choose from.
Every major sport…
As the hours tick down before the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor showdown on Saturday night, the only thing more exciting than debating why McGregor has a chance to win is the list of prop bets available to choose from.
Every major sporting event comes with its share of prop bets. The Super Bowl is must-see television in this country for many reasons, though the weird gambling propositions like how long it will take to perform the national anthem or what color Gatorade each team will drink certainly adds to the suspense.
Mayweather vs. McGregor is, in itself, a prop bet because it pits the biggest star in boxing against the biggest star in mixed martial arts. Granted, they will be competing in a straight boxing match, which would seem to give Mayweather a huge advantage.
Looking at the actual prop bets listed for the year’s biggest combat sports event, here are predictions for what to expect when Mayweather and McGregor finally lock horns.
Will Conor McGregor Win Within the First Four Rounds?
Yes: +500 (bet $100 to win $500)
No: -1000 (bet $1000 to win $100)
This feels like a good place to start since McGregor has already declared he’s going to end the fight inside of four rounds.
“He (Mayweather) is f–ked. There’s no other way about it,” McGregor said on July 12, via Justin Tasch of the New York Daily News. “His little legs, his little core, his little head—I’m gonna knock him out inside four rounds, mark my words.”
It’s hard to fault McGregor for having the confidence to say he can stop Mayweather, who has never lost in 49 professional fights, inside of four rounds. The two-division UFC champion owns 18 wins by knockout in mixed martial arts.
The obvious difference here is that McGregor is using different equipment in the ring than he would in the Octagon.
The four-ounce gloves used in the UFC have less padding, making it easier to land a knockout punch with a clean shot than the traditional eight-ounce boxing gloves that were approved by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
There’s also the matter of Mayweather’s defense. Manny Pacquiao only hit Mayweather on 19 percent of his attempted punches in their matchup two years ago, for instance.
Even if you believe McGregor is going to give Mayweather a real fight and has a strong chance to win, the odds of him doing something no other professionally trained boxer was able to do, and do it inside of four rounds, are not good.
How Many PPV Buys Will Mayweather-McGregor Have?
Over 4.99 Million: -210
Under 4.99 Million: +150
One of the reasons McGregor pushed for this fight for nearly two years and Mayweather ended his two-year retirement is because both of these athletes are also brilliant businessmen.
When the fight was agreed to in June, Keith Idecof Boxing Scene noted one condition of the contract was neither Mayweather nor McGregor could discuss the final financial agreement.
A key source of revenue for the bout will come from pay-per-view buys. The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in May 2015 set the all-time pay-per-view record with 4.4 million buys, which generated more than $400 million in revenue, per ESPN’s Dan Rafael.
Even though the aftermath of the fight was about how boring and uneventful it was, what helped sell that fight was the anticipation. Pacquiao and Mayweather had negotiations to fight dating back to 2009, and they were the biggest stars in boxing up to the point they finally squared off six years later.
Another factor to consider is the Mayweather-Pacquiao buyrate nearly doubled the previous boxing record of 2.4 million buys set by Mayweather’s 2007 matchup against Oscar De La Hoya.
McGregor is the X-factor in this equation. His three fights from July 2015-March 2016 drew a combined 3.5 million buys, per Bloody Elbow’s Iain Kidd, which averages out to just under 1.2 million per show.
If we figure that’s the baseline for a McGregor-only show, putting him with Mayweather has to make up the remaining 3.7 million buys to hit the over.
That’s asking for a lot of fans, some of whom may already be skeptical about McGregor’s chances and who were burned from the hype of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, to approach five million pay-per-view buys.
There’s no denying this will do huge business for all parties involved, but it’s not going to hit the five-million-buy mark.
Will Mayweather and McGregor Have a Rematch Before the End of 2018?
Boxing Rematch: +450
MMA Rematch: +2500
No Rematch: -600
Let’s get one thing out of the way: The only way there is a rematch between Mayweather and McGregor is if McGregor pulls off the upset. There is nothing to gain for anyone in a rematch if Mayweather wins, especially if it’s a one-sided affair.
On the list of choices for this particular bet, scratch a rematch under mixed martial arts rules off the books. As lopsided as a boxing match between Mayweather and McGregor appears to be, an MMA battle between the two would be even more one sided in favor of McGregor.
Mayweather controls all the cards in this situation, and there is no way he would agree to anything resembling an MMA fight.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports wrote on Aug. 8 why a rematch between Mayweather and McGregor is not going to happen:
“But there is no rematch clause. If McGregor defeats Mayweather, he is under no legal or contractual obligation to face Mayweather again. If Mayweather pulls out a disputed decision, McGregor has no way to legally force Mayweather’s hand to do it again.
[…]
“Though the UFC will, as all participants will, make a lot of money, it’s thrown White’s company into chaos. He’s been promoting a boxing match for the last two months, and was negotiating a boxing match for the three months prior to that.
“McGregor, his biggest star, has never defended either of the titles he’s won and he will have had exactly one MMA fight in 371 days prior to his match with Mayweather.
“The UFC needs McGregor to get back into the cage, defend his title and get back on its regular rhythm. If McGregor chooses to retire after the fight, a bout for the vacant championship can be put together and the division will move on.”
Iole also included comments that UFC President Dana White made from the kickoff press conference for the fight about why he wanted no part of a rematch.
“To even talk about a rematch or even think about a rematch, we have to see what the fight is like first,” White said. “Listen, ifFloyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregoris one of the greatest fights you’ve seen in your life, you know it would probably be something you’d have to consider. Otherwise … I want to go back to my world after this.”
UFC’s pay-per-view business has been a mess in 2017. According to MMA Mania’s Ryan Harkness, no event from January through August sold more than 300,000 buys.
ESPN’s Darren Rovell reported UFC 214, headlined by Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, drew 850,000 buys. The UFC needs its pay-per-view business to perform well after its new ownership group paid $4 billion for the promotion in 2016.
McGregor hasn’t fought in the UFC since last November—and likely wouldn’t have to again based on his potential payoff for fighting Mayweather. Ronda Rousey has given no indication she wants to fight anymore since losing to Amanda Nunes in December.
Georges St-Pierre could be returning to the Octagon in November after a four-year absence, but at 36 years old, it’s fair to wonder how much longer he wants to keep fighting.
The point is the UFC doesn’t have a lot of drawing cards right now, and there’s no way it’s going to make anything close to what Mayweather’s camp and Showtime get as the main promoters for the fight, so what significant benefit is there for the company to loan out its biggest star for another fight?
The fans. The media. The other assembled experts.