Saturday night was an exciting night. The matchup that America demanded was finally delivered. Despite what some may tell you, that fight delivered what the majority of people rooted for. A chance to see two professionals from different sport worlds collide in an entertaining fashion. No surprise the boxer won the boxing match. It was an enjoyable fight. I went in on it with some family and enjoyed seeing two entertainers entertain. After I have thought about it for a while I have come away with a couple of things.
McGregor had no shot
McGregor won 3 rounds, but Glass Joe could have won those 3 rounds. Mayweather hardly threw any punches and did two things. He was studying McGregor and secondly he was letting McGregor tire out. Which is surprising to me because McGregor fell for it. McGregor tired wasting big punches on Mayweather’s gloves. He did connect enough to entertain, but they clearly didn’t affect Mayweather. I don’t understand how McGregor’s team hadn’t prepared him for this. We have all seen Rocky III when Clubber Lang wastes his energy hitting Rocky’s gloves, until he is too tired and Rocky finishes him the next round. This is more or less what Mayweather did and it worked great. Of course, it was only a matter of time until a Rocky reference came up. You can’t avoid it.
McGregor never won another round after those first 3 and Mayweather worked him over pretty good the rest of the fight. From that point on it was the fight most expected. A professional beating on an amateur with a lot of heart. McGregor had a little bit of momentum into the 8th round in the beginning, but beside that, when Mayweather decided to box it was over.
Referee stepping in
At the point the referee stopped the fight, the fight was over. Mayweather was connecting on haymaker after haymaker and McGregor was stumbling like a 9 month old. The disappointing thing, was he was never knocked down, which I would have liked to see. The other part is the referee called the match after Mayweather barely grazed him instead of after a meaty fist sandwich. Had he stopped the fight 10 seconds early it would have felt right, but the end felt anticlimactic.
I will note, that if hits to the face are as damaging as the science experts like to make it sound, the ref probably did save McGregor damage. He was certainly going to take more and more of a beating.
Take Aways
It was fun and I think I could watch boxing with some regularity if they didn’t make it so difficult to watch. The fighters would make less, but they really do need a commissioner of boxing, like Dana White for MMA. It would do wonders for the sport.
I wish I would have emptied my 401K for this fight and made a quick 20%. Everyone was right, there was no way McGregor was going to win this fight. Also, getting “lucky” and knocking Mayweather out is much harder said then done. Clearly, no one in the previous 49 fights were able to, not sure why so many thought McGregor would be able to.
It was fun and worth the $25 that I spent on the fight. It was a good time and a perfect warm up to the College Football season this weekend.
1. 2 worlds collide no revelation. MMS is not boxing and vice versa. Mma using boxing rules is ast a disadvantage. (Ask Ronda Rossi ugh..).
2. Mcgregor had no shot.