Mayweather too strong for Conor
LAS VEGAS, United States. — THE most improbable fight, one between an alltime great in Floyd Mayweather and an opponent, Conor McGregor, making his professional boxing debut, ended in the most probable way.
It ended with a dominant Mayweather stopping an outclassed McGregor by TKO in the 10th round of their massively hyped junior middleweight fight on Saturday night before 14,623 — well under capacity — at T-Mobile Arena.
Mayweather, who moved his record to a historic 50-0 with 27 knockouts, said after the fight he would return to retirement.
“This was my last fight tonight. For sure,” Mayweather said. “Tonight was my last fight. Tonight I chose the right dance partner to dance with. Conor you are a hell of a champion.”
With the victory, Mayweather surpassed the hallowed 49-0 mark that great heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano retired with. It’s not a boxing record, but it is revered. There are some who said that beating an opponent with no boxing experience was a disgraceful way to pass Marciano, but Mayweather made no apologies.
“A win is a win, no matter how you get it,” said Mayweather, who said during the buildup that he would consider it a failure if he didn’t score a knockout. “Rocky Marciano is a legend, and I look forward to going into the Hall of Fame one day.”
There was no logical reason to give McGregor, the UFC’s 155-pound champion and one of the best mixed martial artists in the world but not a boxer, a chance in a boxing ring, but that didn’t stop legions from cheering for the underdog. But in the end it was Mayweather, a five-division world champion and the greatest fighter of his era, whose class shined through after a bit of a slow start, which he said was part of his game plan.
McGregor (0-1) was the one who dreamed up the fight, which has a chance to break all the combat sports revenue records set by Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao in 2015, when he mentioned during a television interview he was interested in leaving MMA for a fight with Mayweather.
Mayweather, happy in retirement, eventually came around, and the public ate it up. He ended a two-year layoff to make a guaranteed $100 million but likely will make well in excess of $200 million, while McGregor was guaranteed $30 million and likely will earn more than $100 million for a fight that had an irresistible storyline: Could an MMA great cross over to the boxing ring and do the unimaginable?