By: Sean Crose
By the end of the ninth round of the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor novelty bout on Saturday night, it was clear that UFC superstar McGregor was beaten up. Floyd was landing shot after shot on the man. Furthermore, the Irishman looked exhausted. One of McGregor’s weaknesses in the octagon has always been that he lets the opposition know when he’s in trouble. He gets a cloudy look on his face and takes on the image of a deflating balloon. He was letting the opposition know it again on Saturday, only this time his opponent wasn’t another mixed martial artist. His opponent was Floyd Mayweather, iconic boxer.
Photo Credit: USA Today
McGregor left his stool for the tenth, but, clearly exhausted, attempted only to survive. It proved to be a losing strategy. For Mayweather started landing cleanly over. And over. And over. Looking defeated on the ropes, McGregor didn’t complain when referee Robert Byrd got in between them. And then it was over. The promotion. The hype. The excitement. All over. Mayweather-McGregor was turned to history in a flash. Mayweather was the winner. McGregor was the loser – and that’s all there was to it. It will be said, of course, that the bout was exciting, which it was. It will also said that McGregor proved to be far better than most expected him to be in the ring, which he did.
It will also be said that the fight wasn’t, as many said it would be, a circus. Yet the truth is, the fight was most certainly a circus. From beginning to end, soup to nuts, this whole thing was a big, loud circus. Make no mistake about it, McGregor did better than expected – though it’s hard to imagine why some very smart people would have given McGregor little chance of winning a round. He’s a professional fighter, after all, and quite a good one. That doesn’t mean he was meant to be a boxer, though. Mayweather, it should be said, looked less than his best. Perhaps that’s because the man was the aggressor. Or perhaps it’s just because he’s getting old. Either way, the man clearly didn’t look his best.
Maybe McGregor just had the ability to frustrate him for a bit.
It’s all a moot point, really. It’s hard to see McGregor being as skilled in the ring as he is in the octagon. This was a one off. And that’s maybe why the public was so enthralled, because it was a one off. Perhaps boxing fans should just be grateful the bout wasn’t a dud. Both men performed bravely and seem to have entertained the fans. And that, frankly, is what a novelty bout such as Saturday’s is supposed to do.