Now that Mayweather vs McGregor is over, let’s look back and analyze what took place. As McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh says – we win or we learn. I chose McGregor to pull off the upset of the century, and was admittely off on my analysis. That being said, there were several points that rang true, they just didn’t amount to the result I was expecting. Let’s look back and go over some key take aways:
Mayweather vs McGregor Recap
Mayweather is the fucking man
If you didn’t like Mayweather before, you probably dislike him a little less now. It was very refreshing to see Mayweather get aggressive and walk his opponent down. Perhaps the biggest victory of all what that we actually saw an exciting Mayweather contest! Nevertheless, he deserves all the praise that a 50-0 record may suggest. He showed an iron chin, unshakable composure, and absolute brilliance inside the boxing ring. Props to him.
There was no loser
The official result will read Floyd Mayweather def. Conor McGregor via TKO at Round 10, but this was the mildest of losses. When you take a 5,000 ft view of the event, and just think about the entire challenge that McGregor faced, it’s pretty spectacular that he was able to offer a somewhat competitive bout. Mayweather gets to bring home hundreds of millions of dollars, and a 50-0 record. McGregor gets to bring home $100 Million plus, and a whole lot of pride. Showtime gets to sit proudly knowing that they put on the biggest fight of all time. UFC gets to sit proudly knowing that their poster-boy put on a hell of a performance and earned the respect of millions.
McGregor didn’t win, but he did what he wanted to do
At the end of the day, the real question about this bout was: “Can someone from MMA have success against a high-level boxer?” And that answer is yes. McGregor DID have success; he landed solid shots on Mayweather, won some rounds (5 rounds in my book, but at the least 3), and showed that an unconventional style can be effective. Obviously, it didn’t net the result he wanted, but it was an admirable showing that showed glimpses of brilliances.
UFC is the best combat sports promotion
We all loved the build up to Mayweather vs McGregor, but it was due to the two participants in the fight. NOT Showtime. In fact, the actual event was almost botched on August 26th. The T-Mobile Arena did not sell out. There were entire sections of seats that didn’t have bodies in them due to the extremely high ticket prices. The energy was also absent in the building; likely due to the fact that most of the fans in attendance weren’t die-hard fight fans. There weren’t thousands of screaming Irish fans like a typical McGregor fight which gave a bit of a dull feeling. Furthermore, there were PPV issues for many fans trying to purchase the event. This led to a considerable delay of the main event. In sum, this event seemed a little mismanaged by Showtime. I can’t help but think the UFC would have done a much better job with this event.
We need to celebrate the fighters, not put them down
One of the most amusing things about the whole event was listening to uninformed “boxing experts” constantly discredit McGregor. They said he was going to get ran over, obliterated, and not be able to land a glove. Even after McGregor landed 111 significant punches, and arguably won 4 rounds, they still won’t admit it. To say McGregor over-performed does nothing but raise the level of praise that both men should get. It has nothing to do with putting the sport of boxing down, but rather, it’s about praising both McGregor and Mayweather on their performance. McGregor came out guns blazing and presented Mayweather with a difficult puzzle. Yet, Mayweather, at the age of 40, managed to solve it and score a finish. Both men deserve heaps of credit.
Check back for more Mayweather vs McGregor discussion!
