Page 8 August 31, 2017
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Mayweather/McGregor Melee Motivated by Money
way that everyone knew it would. Mayweather
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