The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All that's left is to count cash
Mayweather may top $300million; McGregor $100M.
Conor McGre
LASVEGAS— gor was drinking Irish whiskey and acting like he had won. Floyd Mayweather Jr. was reminiscing about his early days as a fighter and looking forward to a different kind of business a this strip club.
There were smiles all around, and with good reason. They pulled off an audacious gamble Saturday night, and all thatwas left to do was to count the money rolling in.
Mayweather estimated his take at $300-350 million. McGregor said he likely would clear $100 million, and said he had his accountants on speed dial to make sure it was all collected.
Fans of both boxing and mixed martial arts had to be happy, too. They got a reasonably entertaining fight that settled nothing about the two sports but embar
rassed neither fighter.
“I enjoyed it very, very much,” McGregor said. “It was an honor formeto showcase my skills.”
They go their separate ways now, after a fight that had a little something for everyone. Mayweather won by battering McGregor around late until it was stopped in the 10th round, but in reality McGregor was a big winner too.
He was reasonably competent as a boxer in his first pro fifight. He actually controlled the first few rounds, and was never off his feet despite taking a beating in the late rounds.
Mayweather eventually figured him out, and exposed
him for the boxing novice he was. McGregor didn’t become king of boxing like he predicted before the
fifight, but he won millions of new fans and will now likely return to the UFC as its unquestioned star. And Mayweather? Well, 50-0 has a nice ring to it, passing the 49-0record of Rocky Marcia no that serves as a benchmark in the sport. He got a 10th-round knock out that helped erase the stain from his fifight with Manny Pacquiao two years earlier. And, after earning nearly $1 billion in his 21-year career, he can get on with his varied businesses and maybe even train a few fighters himself.
“You won’t see me in the ring anymore,” Mayweather said. “Any guy calling me out, forget it. I’m OK. I had a great career.”
Indeed, he did, winning every time he got into the ring and building his brand wisely so he could make a fortune off of it. No boxer has ever marketed himself like the man who calls himself Money, and he can now relax and enjoy his private jets, mansions and courtside seats to NBA games.
The criticism of the Pacquiao fight will now fade away, and the last image of the best defensive fighter of his generation will be of him coming forward boldly and going for one final knockout.
“I felt like I owed the fans a last hurrah,” Mayweather said. “I told you guys I’d come straight ahead and I told you the fifight would not go the distance.”
The fight itself played out much like many in boxing expected. McGregor got off to a good start, Mayweather
figured him out after a few rounds, and after that the only question was whether Mayweather would stop a
fighter legitimately for the first time in nearly a decade. He did, battering McGregor around the ring in the 10th round until the referee moved into stop it. McGregor didn’t protest, though afterward he said he wished he would have been allowed to continue as Saturday night blended into Sundaymorning on the famous Las Vegas Strip.