Breaking Down The Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Takes

The Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor circus is finally behind us. In a shocker, the guy with 49 professional fights beat the guy with 0 professional fights. Here were the most common comments following the Biggest Fight In Combat Sports History.

“Conor McGregor could own boxing with more experience and cardio”

Ok, let’s not overstate on how McGregor did in the fight. He looked better than those who stupidly thought he wouldn’t land a single punch and worse than those who thought he’d KO Mayweather in four rounds. Given how Mayweather fought and Conor’s combat sports skills, he looked about how you’d expect him to look.

Make no mistake about it, Mayweather didn’t bother to fight in the first three rounds. He admitted as much. He stood in front of his Irish opponent, played defense, and let Conor wear himself out. It’s like he watched the second fight between Conor and Nate Diaz and said, “here’s my game plan.” Even when Conor is dominating fights, he wears himself out. And if he can’t put an opponent away in the first 10-minutes, he starts to fade. Typically, he puts his opponent away or he’s done enough damage to where the later rounds don’t matter as much. But that’s MMA, where he’s still able to keep opponents back with kicks and hide a bit more because he’s facing inferior strikers.

After 10-minutes, Floyd began walking Conor down and unloading on him. Conor showed some solid defense and landed close in strikes, but none of it bothered Mayweather. He could eat those all day while giving back much harder punches to the head and body.

Everyone giving Conor a chance said, “his power will be a difference maker.” He had multiple chances to land significant power shots in the first three rounds. None of those shots fazed Mayweather and ended up costing him a lot of energy.

Could Conor do well in boxing? Probably. He showed off impressive speed, landed some good counters, and was able to give Floyd some different looks and angeles.

But there’s no indication that his cardio will ever improve, he won’t always have the benefit of fighting a 40-year-old who hasn’t fought in nearly two years (even if he’s the best ever), and there was no proof that his power translates to boxing.

He’d still make a lot more money than he would in the UFC.

“Floyd Mayweather ruined his legacy with this fight”

Mayweather only added to his legacy with this fight. He made more money than most athletes will make in a 15 year career, he’s 50-0, and he finished with a TKO victory in an entertaining fight.

Just because Floyd let a MMA fighter with no professional boxing experience touch him a bit, doesn’t mean he’s not one of the best pure boxers the sport as ever seen. Floyd knew exactly what he was doing in this fight. He took the best McGregor had to offer early and then proceeded to walk him down, knowing that Conor would get tired and have no answer. It was a change in style from his typical defensive brilliance because he knew he had nothing to lose. Conor wasn’t knocking him out after those first four rounds, so instead of sitting back and waiting, why not press the action and make him uncomfortable? Yes, he took a bit of damage early because he allowed Conor to throw without returning fire. And yes, he took a bit of damage later because he walked forward with little movement, but all of that was by design.

Floyd promised a great fight for the fans. We should be grateful that he finally delivered.

“The fight was stopped too early”

Conor fans, and Conor himself, saying this makes no sense to me. If you’re a fan of Conor, why would you want to see him get hit in the head even more before eventually falling down? You do know that’s what was going to happen, right? Please don’t tell me, “Oh, anything can happen in a fight. Conor should have been given a chance.” There was absolutely zero indication that Conor was going to comeback and win the fight. He was taking clean power punches with little resistance for the majority of round 8, 9, and into 10.

There’s no extra honor for staying up until you eventually fall. Only extra brain damage.

“Floyd should go to MMA now”

Unless they have cages in the strip club (I’m sure some do), Floyd is going nowhere near a cage.

What did you think about the fight? Leave a comment or let me know on Twitter @jeremylambert88