Mayweather vs. McGregor

I think Mayweather takes McGregor out in the first round.

professor wanna bet?

Like Mayweather too...Quick feet.

Connor put up a good fight early on, but wasted too much energy in the first 4-5 rounds. Mayweather's plan worked to perfection.... avoid the big punch, stay close and stick to the body shots early, and then pick him apart when he became too tired to defend himself.

Mayweather was never going to let himself get into a slugfest with a street brawler.

And judging by the payout, both guys won tonight.

PA-PLAYA And judging by the payout, both guys won tonight.

Cha-ching!

ode
On the brighter side, the grips came yesterday. Thanks again.

McGregor the brawler was never going to win against a nuanced boxer in a boxing match, outside of landing an early-round blow that might've ended the fight early. Floyd Mayweather, whether you like him or not, had a 49-0 record at the highest level of boxing for a reason. If nothing else - he's always been a defensive fighter who won a majority of his fights in the latter part of the bouts... he's an intelligent fighter. He didn't need to change his strategy whatsoever. In fact - sticking with his usual strategy of wearing down his opponent actually increased the odds of him winning, especially given that McGregor wasn't accustomed to going more than 10-15 minutes in his MMA fights before he was awarded the decision.

McGregor came to fight, whereas Mayweather came to box. And despite all of the training beforehand, despite Mayweather agreeing to the lighter 8oz gloves - it was never going to change Mayweather's game plan.

But there is some truth to the argument that this fight was staged. Three weeks out, with the promoters knowing that ticket sales weren't strong... not knowing how strong the PPV sales might be at the last minute... they created the narrative that Mayweather was slow and vulnerable, and that McGregor stood at least a punter's chance. All of which, of course, was designed to increase publicity and interest. Mayweather's interviews the last couple of weeks leading up to the fight, regarding the legitimacy of his opponent, changed quite dramatically. Suddenly the 49-0 champion was giving McGregor a lot more credit than was obviously due.

I think both fighters were told beforehand - "this fight needs to go more than 2-3 rounds." Beyond that, I don't know that much else was staged. I think McGregor knew he was overmatched, but also knew that he needed to do his part in making sure that the PPV audience deserved more than a 2 or 3 round decision.

Once those first couple of rounds were in the books, I think both fighters felt that they'd fulfilled their obligations. I don't think it would've changed the outcome, as Mayweather was never going to lose this fight, whether it was ended early or he would decide to extend the bout to 10 rounds.

I think this was predetermined to go on longer than 25 minutes of action, and at that point may the best man win.

Glad I didn't spend the 100 bucks to watch it, although at the same time I'll admit that I enjoyed it. My neighbor invited me over to watch, so I brought some wings and pizza over to his place on what would've otherwise been a boring evening of Netflix reruns.

My summary is that McGregor acquitted himself fairly well, and Mayweather stuck to his usual script of being a seasoned fighter. But there was an enormous amount of hype and hoopla heading into the final days of the fight that can't be ignored, and that leads me to believe that the promoters knew what the outcome would be all along.

McGregor never stood a chance. Not in a boxing match, not in a bout that would take 30+ minutes.

McGregor would have had to end it in the first 3 rounds of he was done. No way he could stay beyond that and hope to win. His MMA fights are of short duration not 12 rounders that Mayweather is used to . Mayweather may be a personal POS but he is not stupid - not getting into an MMA cage match with McGregor. Of course, the only "loser" was the guy who spent money to see this joke.

Fatigue is an issue for CM.....would have been nice to see him be able to defend himself in the later rounds....it's not as if he punched himself out early, he wasn't throwing haymakers, he just gassed. Floyd had a lot to do with that by way of strategy....but CM is not built to go 12 boxing or 5 MMA.

It'll be interesting to see if McGregor's big payday will end up holding the UFC hostage going forward. My understanding is that Connor is under contract with the UFC, and I'm sure that certain conditions/bonuses apply with regard to his career as a MMA fighter under the UFC umbrella. That said, McGregor went from a relative unknown up until a couple years ago to a household name seemingly overnight, and it's fairly clear that he now holds all the leverage.

The problem, however, is that the window of a MMA fighter's career is very limited. Which, understandably, is why McGregor embraced this opportunity to cash-in on his name with the fight against Mayweather. Nevertheless, it puts the UFC in a very precarious situation with regard to Connor's career going forward.

While they obviously want to capitalize on his popularity for the time being, it's also a very delicate matter given that he's undoubtedly reached the pinnacle of his career and that he'll never compete for that much money ever again.

I guess it ultimately comes down to just how much longer a fighter of his caliber wants to continue putting in the time and effort, because he's comfortably set for life financially now.

I wouldn't be shocked if we never see McGreggor again. UFC won't pay what he wants and won't let him out of his contract, so I wouldn't be shocked if he just says F it, I have what I need, see you later and takes all the endorsements etc he can get for the next couple months to the bank. Go Rhonda Rousey on the fans and be a figure head, nothing more.

If I were him, that's exactly what I would do. I'd tell ole Dana White where he can stick it and leave.

The fight, whatever you want to say about it, was entertaining and that is ALL this is about. Every sport out there is and entertainment product, either it does its job or it's not making money. We watch for entertainment, we play for entertainment, here we are talking about it for entertainment. That's all this is, like it or not, our only concern is truly entertainment value.

They could have gone a long way to ridding themselves of the question of a fix (other than making it go longer than 1 round) if they simply said $100 m for the winner, $25 m for the loser, rather than determining those payouts upfront.

kelco9

I don't know about McGregor, but it wouldn't be hard to find even extremely good boxers that will take a dive for a whole lot less than 25 m. That's one of the big problems with a sport that has only two contestants and a whole bunch of legal and illegal money involved. Conner is probably driven enough by the desire for fame and reputation that he wouldn't, but ...