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Page 8 August 31, 2017
make the edifice on Douglas Street safe for
all and conducive to implementing prolific
21st Century learning.
Vince Madsen, District point man for the
massive construction project, emailed that
“based on the current construction activities
still on going in and around the school
building, I am hopeful that most of them
should be completing by the first or second
week of September--which will allow District
consultants to finalize pre-function testing of
all of our building equipment and fire life
safety requirements, which could be a few
more weeks of activity. We are very hopeful
that we can get students and staff moved
into the building sometime in October. We
still have a lot of little detailed construction
items to wrap up between now and then.”
The next regularly scheduled Wiseburn
School Board meeting is on the docket for
Thursday evening, September 14. •
Mayweather/McGregor Melee Motivated by Money
won, fans were entertained, and the two
participants who were completely and solely
motivated by money made enough of it to set
themselves up for the rest of their collective
lives. – Asixlion@earthlink.net •
By Adam Serrao
At the end of the day, what everyone in
the world knew would happen, happened. The
boxing match--or circus, if you prefer--between
arguably the best boxer of all time and a
fighter who had never boxed professionally
for a day in his life ended in favor of the
former rather than the latter. Floyd “Money”
Mayweather, Jr. strategically allowed mixed
martial arts star Conor McGregor to come
at him early in the fight that took place last
Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las
Vegas. By the eighth round, McGregor was
gassed. It didn’t take long after that for the
fight to end by TKO in favor of Mayweather,
giving the two fighters what they had sought
after all along--the biggest payday in the
history of the sport of boxing.
Mayweather knew what he was doing
throughout the entirety of the boxing match.
That means purposefully letting McGregor
waste his punches on him in order to make
the fight more compelling and entertaining
to the audience--which has been rare in
Mayweather fights throughout the years. “I
think we gave the fans what they wanted to
see,” Mayweather said in the ring after his
victory. “I owed them for the Pacquiao fight. I
had to come straight ahead and give the fans
a show. That’s what I gave them.”
Mayweather was never in any jeopardy of
losing the fight. He knew that he wouldn’t
be ever since the rivalry with McGregor was
manufactured. Though passionate UFC fans
won’t like to admit it, even they knew that
their star had no chance in a boxing match
against one of the greatest to ever live. That-
-and the exorbitant ticket prices--was the
reason why the T-Mobile arena didn’t even
sell out for the fight. Mayweather, however,
was more than happy to end his retirement
after two years to collect one final exorbitant
paycheck for one hour of controlling what
may have been the easiest boxing match of
his entire career.
“Our game plan was to take our time,
go to him, let him shoot his shots early
and then take him out down the stretch,” a
calculated Mayweather explained post-fight.
Throughout the first three rounds of the match,
Mayweather landed a total of nine punches
to his opponent. In the 10th and final round
alone, Mayweather connected with nine shots
to the face of McGregor, forcing the referee
to jump between the two and end the fight
within the final minute of the round.
The only controversy surfacing from the
night was from McGregor and his fans
claiming that the referee stepped in to stop the
fight too soon. “Let the man put me down,”
McGregor stated after the fight with a plastic
cup full of whiskey in his hand. “That’s
fatigue, that’s not damage. Where was the
final two rounds? Let me walk back to my
corner and compose myself.” McGregor is
lucky that he got out of the ninth round, let
alone the 10th, while still on his feet. Because
of his self-proclaimed fatigue, he was unable
to defend himself against Mayweather, let
alone throw anything slightly resembling a
punch back. The referee stepping in “early,”
as they do in boxing when someone is getting
pummeled, did McGregor a favor. By allowing
him to leave the fight while still (wobbling)
on his own two feet, the ref not only saved
McGregor from the embarrassment that would
have surely happened two seconds later of
being knocked out cold on the canvas, but
also gave the first-time boxer an excuse for
what was already an inevitable loss in the
ring that night.
Despite the loss, McGregor is poised to
quadruple his net worth, which of course was
the plan from the outset for an event that could
be said to have been more of a contest of
promotional antics than anything resembling a
professional boxing match. Mayweather, who
knew that he would win from the start, will
likely be walking away from the match with
more than $300 million for his one hour of
work. That being said, the fight was at least
much more entertaining than Mayweather’s
previous bout against Manny Pacquiao. And
despite McGregor never really having a
chance at all, he still lasted 10 entire rounds
in the ring with possibly the greatest boxer
ever, showed a ton of heart, and landed 30
more punches (111) than Pacquiao (81) did
in two fewer rounds. Mayweather out-landed
McGregor 130-60 in rounds six through 10
once the former finally decided that it was
time to box.
UFC fans are a pretty passionate bunch,
there’s no doubt about that. And despite
how easy it is to hate Mayweather for things
he has done out of the ring, this fight has
made it easy to appreciate the boxer that he
is inside of it because of his fighting IQ. A
fighter, who is normally defensive by nature,
won the match by attacking and formulating a
game plan against a bigger, more aggressive
opponent. In the end, the fight concluded in a
way that everyone knew it would. Mayweather
books on the past school year, which he
termed a positive campaign for Wiseburn.
Action items quickly addressed and
passed by the Board included an agreement
to continue a partnership with Loyola
Marymount University and the District on
the Mathematics Leadership Project, which
Johnstone said was a “win-win” situation
not only for the District, but for also for the
LMU participants.
Prior to the open meeting session, which
started a little after 7 p.m., the Board met
in closed session with representatives from
Balfour Beatty--the construction company
charged with building the structure on Douglas
Street. Those individuals answered inquiries
from Board members about the progress
being made as the construction and final
touches take place on the property. Suffice
to say that all parties are eager to wrap up
the construction project, but the key is to
Herald Publications will be closed on
Monday, September 4.
Have a wonderful day with your family and friends!
School Board from front page
As we celebrate Labor Day, we honor the men and women who
fought tirelessly for workers’ rights, which are so critical to our
strong and successful labor force.”
— Elizabeth Esty