Mayweather vs. McGregor: Life After the End of the World

All right, everybody. It’s safe. The coast is clear. You can all come out of hiding now.

At least I think it’s safe. I’ve been away the last few weeks because I was reading all these discussions and opinions about the block-super-megabuster fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor and how it was going to be the death of boxing and everyone would stop caring about MMA and Oscar de la Hoya was using a lot of profanity, so I thought it was a good idea to go prepare for August 26.

I did so by building a fallout shelter, one strong enough to withstand the 6-megaton blast that was going to disintegrate all of modern society, 100 simoleons at a time.

And when I say “fallout shelter” I mean I taped a couple Wheaties boxes together and hid under my bed. I think it it worked quite well.

But here we are now, on the other side of the fight and, surprisingly, the world didn’t end.

The sun is still rising. The grass is still green. The President is still an overstuffed breakfast burrito that somebody dropped in the toilet and then tried to dry off with an industrial sized leafblower.

Okay, maybe not everything is perfect but the aftermath of “Money” Mayweather’s 10th round TKO victory over “Slightly Less Money” McGregor does mean one thing:

MMA sites are going to talk about MMA again!

HOORAY! IT’S MORNING IN ARI EMANUEL’S AMERICA!

Well, other than this piece, and all the others that are going to come out this week talking about the fight itself and the aftermath, but it could be worse. You could be reading about someone asking Jeremy Piven’s opinion of the fight. Or Snoop Dogg’s.

I will say this, though, because, statistically speaking, this applies to you: sorry you lost that bet.

Sports books are breathing a huge sigh of relief over Floyd’s victory, considering that the overwhelming majority of bets were coming in for the Irishman, partly from people who thought he could win and partly from people who just really wanted him to win.

I will say that I 100% wanted Conor to win that fight. That’s mostly because I’m a fan of chaos and was curious to see what the reaction would have been if the undefeated, most dominant boxer of our generation lost to the brash MMA champion who had never competed in a professional boxing fight.

It would have been madness. Sweet, savory, hickory-smoked madness.

However, I also wanted to see Conor win because he represents the sport I love and he represents it well.

You can say what you want about the brash personality he presents in front of the cameras and you can choose to not condone some of the controversial things he’s said and done in the leadup to this fight but at least he’s not a convicted woman beater.

Also, did you see the picture of Conor with Conor Jr. dressed in a three piece suit? SO CUTE!!!

Every interview I’ve seen where we’ve heard from Conor McGregor the person and not Conor McGregor the persona has shown a refreshing humbleness, someone who is confident and always knew he was capable of achieving great things but can also appreciate the stops on the journey and doesn’t forget where he came from and who helped him get here. He seemed truly grateful to be where he is, to have this payday waiting for him.

Unless that was all part of the persona, in which case, he’s doing a much better acting job than Jon Jones ever did.

Seriously, Jonny Bones could not have asked for a better week for it to come out that he failed a drug test. Everyone would be tearing into him now like a warm syringe but we’ve got more important things to discuss, like whatever the hell that was Gervonta Davis wore out to the ring for his co-main event fight.

Apparently, it’s hard to make weight when you have cookies to eat. Also, heads to punch the back of.

As for the main event, it started off how Conor wanted it to, by controlling the ring and setting the pace. He looked good through the first 5 rounds (the first three especially) by throwing a high output of punches and by wearing out Floyd in the clinch.

Unfortunately, it was a pace that Conor couldn’t keep up, as he starting to slow halfway through the fight, clearing giving away rounds 6, 7, 8, and 9 to Mayweather before getting hit by a few good punches in the 10th that he couldn’t recover from fast enough to prevent the referee from stopping the fight, giving Floyd one last stoppage as he improved his boxing record to a perfect 50-0.

What impressed me the most about Conor’s performance was how well he managed to work within the rules of the fight. There were plenty of MMA coaches, such as Firas Zahabi and Pat Miletich, who said that Conor would need to play dirty to gain an advantage in the fight and, aside from a few instances of hitting Floyd in the back of the head (I’m amazed a few of those didn’t result in point deductions), Conor stuck to the boxing script and looked pretty good.

Seriously, if you knew nothing about Conor’s background going into the fight, you would not be able to tell that this was his first pro boxing fight. This was by no means a CM Punk kind of debut. Conor looked fantastic. There’s no doubt in my mind that, if he decided to fully dedicate himself to boxing and improve his cardio, he could compete with ranked boxers or maybe even become champion.

Unless it was all part of Floyd’s plan to make Conor looked that competitive. If he was, then he truly is the best.

Whatever the truth may be, it worked out great for Conor and, for that reason, I still find it hard to believe that he will go back to MMA now, to go back to making less than 1/10th the money he just made. Not unless UFC agrees to give him an ownership stake, which it seems highly likely they will. I mean, what’s a little conflict of interest when you have the ability to blow your nose and wipe up a million Payperview buys?

That is, assuming people continue to buy his fights after UFC Fight Pass literally crashed due to the overwhelming volume of purchases. What was that about everyone on the planet being able to see this fight, Dana? Enjoy your cut of all the known money in the universe.

UFC will need that money considering that, now that Jones is out of the sport (again) and Brock Lesnar is still WWE Universal Champion (it should have been Braun Strowman…), who’s UFC got left to make money with? Demetrious Johnson?

Congrats on a successful boxing debut, Conor, even if you aren’t satisfied with how you performed. Just know that, whatever you do next, whether it’s boxing or MMA or you choosing to retire to your private island that you presumably own by now, just know you did the entire MMA community proud. Screw what Paulie Malinaggi says. How many 9 figure paydays has he ever made?

I feel very poor right now…Why did I buy Wheaties when Corn Flakes were cheaper? I lived through the end of the world but it’s hard to call this living…

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.