Floyd Mayweather Jr. throws a punch at Conor McGregor during their super welterweight boxing match on August 26, 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Christian Petersen/Getty Images/AFP
Everybody happy? Floyd Mayweather (50-0) promised that all those involved in his match against mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor would be very pleased after their Aug. 26 clash in Las Vegas.
By that, Mayweather must’ve meant a full-house crowd rooting and celebrating a classic battle after the final bell.
There was no full-house crowd. Neither was there a final bell as the creaky referee, who played hooky for most of the earlier rounds, jumped in to stop the bout in the 10th round.
That was fine. Originally blasted as illogical, the fight proved a little entertaining and wholly profitable, thereby setting a new record in pay-per-view buys.
It’s eerie, but nobody seemed more pleased than McGregor himself, who threw a pool-side party and cried “Nobody beats the Irish,” a whisky bottle in hand.
Truth is he would have been elsewhere, in the ICU if not the mental ward, if Robert Byrd did not do the logical thing of pulling him out of sure crippling destruction.
It might have escaped the eyes of excited spectators, but McGregor was a dead duck in that very critical stretch when he was unable to respond to the flurries from a suddenly authoritative foe.
McGregor would claim he did not get stopped, but was merely fatigued. He was clearly out on his feet, if not [yet] out of his mind.
Anyway, playing gracious host to an aspirant Superman who had severely maligned him, Mayweather went out of his way to hail McGregor as a great champ. Note: There was no blink from his naughty eyes, unlike at the end of the third round, the point Mayweather obviously decided to stop playing dumb and start working.
No A-game from Mayweather, indeed; and there were those who readily started asking why it took Mayweather long to stop the boastful straying Irishman?
Why? Because it took him harder and a bit longer coddling and making McGregor look good and competitive enough.
In the end, the bout did not turn into a hideous con game, contrary to what had been feared. Mayweather should also be named Mismatch-maker of the year, if not the decade.
“Didn’t I tell you it won’t last the distance?” a giddy Mayweather told greeters in his own post-fight party.
Anyway, when the smoke of silly battle cleared, Mayweather would be quoted as saying McGregor would do well to forget entering the boxing ring again. This was after McGregor got given an official 60-day layoff order from competing.
Didn’t Mayweather also try some form of baby-sitting inside the ring in the first three rounds at the T-Mobile Arena?
Not really.
Don Rafael of ESPN said Mayweather simply made sure he would stroll into retirement healthy, wealthy and WISE!