Lesson from a real boxer
GOING 10 rounds with the greatest boxer of a generation is an almighty effort for a debutant – Ricky Hatton and Diego Corrales couldn’t get further – so hats off to Conor McGregor for hanging in.
But seriously, this wasn’t close, nor was it going to end any other way than with the Irishman being stopped by Floyd Mayweather.
McGregor didn’t lose his legs in the 10th round, he lost them in the sixth. He was landing nothing of substance, his pitter- patter punches merely an annoyance, like a pesky fly on a hot day.
Mayweather was never in danger of being hurt, and if McGregor wants another bout against a man his size, he will hit the canvas before the referee can save him.
The different pace and fitness required in the squared circle as opposed to an MMA octagon hit after just 18 minutes of ring action for the brash- talking McGregor. Had Mayweather wanted to put his foot on the pedal then, he would have taken McGregor out in the seventh.
But the undefeated American is ever cautious, and so took his time breaking down McGregor with stiff jabs to the body and snapping leftright crosses.
At 40, Mayweather has retained his speed. He let the first three rounds slip by trying to determine how to accurately punish his much bigger, awkward opponent, who was not properly penalised for hitting behind the head or grappling Mayweather when his back was turned.
What McGregor did show was a willingness to stand and deliver shots, which, sadly, many of Mayweather’s more credentialed rivals haven’t had the courage to do.
So it’s a credit to the UFC’s top man that he came to fight in such unfamiliar surroundings, against the sharpest shooter in the desert of Las Vegas.
But any notion that he has somehow opened the floodgates for UFC fighters to start taking on boxing world champions is nonsense.
The skills are not transferable when it’s most required. When McGregor most needed his power, he could not muster it. When he needed his feet to move, they were stuck in quicksand, allowing Mayweather to pound his head.
His mouth was gaping after four rounds; he threw two and three-punch combinations at the start of each round thereafter in a bid to keep Mayweather at bay, but otherwise was stuck wrestling the boxer and desperately sucking in oxygen.
Mayweather has always been a risk- free craftsman and so obligingly carried McGregor through the earlier rounds, feeling his opponent fading by the second.
So while we may feel we got our money’s worth because the fight lasted much longer than expected, the brutal honesty was that this fight was effectively finished after that 18 minutes.
McGregor was just a game punching bag in the final four rounds. Just because it lasted longer than most tipped didn’t make it any less one- sided or inevitable.
The boxer won the boxing match.