Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Conor McGregor

Floyd Mayweather Jr returned from almost two years of retirement to stop mixed-martial-arts champion Conor McGregor in the tenth round at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on 26 August 2017. The contest, fought under professional boxing rules at junior-middleweight, was McGregor’s professional boxing debut and Mayweather’s fiftieth professional bout. The Nevada State Athletic Commission recorded Mayweather at 149½ pounds and McGregor at 153. Robert Byrd refereed before an attendance of 14,623. Mayweather entered with a record of 49-0 after last boxing against Andre Berto in September 2015; McGregor came directly from the UFC, where he had become champion in two weight divisions. The difference in conventional boxing experience could scarcely have been greater, yet McGregor remained competitive during the early portion of the fight before Mayweather steadily broke him down and forced Byrd to intervene at 1 minute 5 seconds of the tenth round.

McGregor began as might have been expected from a fighter whose methods had been formed outside orthodox boxing. The southpaw stood tall, frequently changed the position of his hands and attempted to use his longer reach while pressing Mayweather towards the ropes. Mayweather, normally one of the most economical counter-punchers of his era, did remarkably little offensively in the first round. He moved, watched and allowed McGregor to spend energy establishing the pace. McGregor landed several scoring blows and at one stage dropped his hands behind his back, but there was no indication that Mayweather had been seriously troubled. All three official judges gave McGregor the opening round. The second followed a similar pattern, McGregor continuing to advance and touch Mayweather with punches while Byrd warned him for striking behind the head. The judging began to divide: Dave Moretti gave McGregor the second, while Burt Clements and Guido Cavalleri preferred Mayweather. In the third, McGregor continued to enjoy some success with his activity and awkward angles. Moretti again gave the round to the Irishman, leaving him three rounds ahead on that card, although Clements and Cavalleri had Mayweather taking both the second and third.

The character of the fight began to alter in the fourth. Mayweather moved forward more deliberately, shortened the distance and started landing his right hand. McGregor, who had been able to dictate much of the early tempo through movement and volume, was now being made to work while retreating. Mayweather also began attacking the body. The veteran was not attempting to reproduce the elusive defensive style with which he had defeated Manny Pacquiao and many other leading boxers; instead, he accepted closer range and steadily forced McGregor to expend energy. Mayweather later said that the plan devised with his father was to allow McGregor to throw freely early and then increase the pressure as he tired. The official cards show how rapidly control changed. From the fourth round onwards, all three judges gave every completed round to Mayweather. By the end of four, CompuBox nevertheless had McGregor ahead 42-28 in total punches landed, evidence that the UFC champion had made legitimate use of his opportunity rather than merely surviving the opening stages.

Mayweather continued advancing through the fifth and sixth, applying pressure with considerably less concern for McGregor’s return fire. The Irishman was still throwing and occasionally landing, but the movement of the opening rounds was becoming less energetic and Mayweather’s punches were increasingly cleaner and more forceful. By the sixth, the older man was driving hard shots to the head and forcing McGregor backwards. Redness was becoming visible on McGregor’s face, while the heavily Irish crowd continued to encourage him. The contrast in efficiency was beginning to tell. McGregor had thrown the greater volume but was spending more effort to land each punch; Mayweather, once he had established the range, was throwing less wastefully and connecting with increasing regularity. Showtime’s unofficial scorer Steve Farhood had given McGregor the opening three rounds and Mayweather the next three, a reasonable summary of the changing contest even though two of the official judges had Mayweather ahead much earlier.

By the seventh there was little doubt which man was governing the fight. Mayweather landed a sharp right hand that snapped McGregor’s head backwards and continued to find openings as the challenger’s punches lost much of their earlier speed. McGregor was still trying to work, but he was increasingly reduced to holding, turning and attempting to interrupt Mayweather’s advances rather than mounting sustained attacks of his own. Mayweather, at 40 and after a 714-day absence from competition, was fighting in a more straightforward manner than had become customary late in his career. He remained close, walked McGregor down and trusted his experience and conditioning to decide the contest. The eighth continued along the same lines. McGregor remained upright and competitive enough to answer, but Mayweather was now able to attack without facing the sharp counters which might have discouraged such an approach against an accomplished professional boxer. The statistical change was pronounced: after McGregor had held a 51-40 advantage in punches landed through five rounds, Mayweather outlanded him 130-60 from rounds six through ten.

McGregor made one last energetic beginning in the ninth, moving immediately towards Mayweather and becoming entangled behind him before Byrd separated the pair. Once that moment passed, however, the round belonged almost entirely to Mayweather. Right hands repeatedly struck McGregor cleanly, one turning his head sharply, and combinations followed as the tiring challenger struggled to maintain his posture. Two judges, Moretti and Cavalleri, scored the ninth 10-8 despite there being no knockdown; Clements made it 10-9. McGregor reached the bell but was plainly exhausted. At that stage the official totals were 89-82 for Clements, 89-81 for Cavalleri and 87-83 for Moretti. Farhood’s unofficial card was considerably closer at 86-85, but every scoring interpretation agreed that the momentum had moved decisively towards Mayweather.

The end came quickly in the tenth. McGregor no longer possessed sufficient energy to keep Mayweather at a distance. Mayweather landed a heavy right that badly staggered him, then followed up with a succession of unanswered punches. McGregor remained on his feet, but he was being driven backwards towards the ropes, his defence failing and his replies having virtually ceased. Byrd moved between the fighters and stopped the contest at 1:05. McGregor objected afterwards, maintaining that fatigue rather than damage had caused his condition and that he should have been allowed the opportunity to recover, but the referee had seen a badly tired boxer taking repeated clean punches without answering effectively. Mayweather had landed 20 of 26 power punches in the final round before the intervention. There had been no knockdowns during the contest.

CompuBox recorded Mayweather landing 170 of 320 punches, an accuracy rate of 53 per cent, while McGregor connected with 111 of 430, or 26 per cent. The figures support the visual course of the contest. McGregor’s volume and unusual approach allowed him to bank early success while Mayweather observed him, but as the rounds passed the professional boxer’s economy became increasingly decisive. McGregor was required to throw far more punches to achieve substantially less, and once fatigue took away his movement he could no longer prevent Mayweather from advancing directly into range. The final result gave Mayweather his first stoppage since his controversial fourth-round victory over Victor Ortiz in 2011 and advanced his professional record to 50-0 with 27 knockouts. He announced afterwards that he was retiring again.

The contest had attracted exceptional attention because it matched one of the outstanding boxers of his generation against a man who had never previously taken part in a professional boxing match. McGregor nevertheless performed better in the early rounds than many had predicted, and his awkward stance, reach, and willingness to attack required Mayweather to make adjustments. What he could not reproduce was the economy, defensive judgement and physical pacing acquired through a lifetime in boxing. Mayweather did not attempt to overwhelm him immediately. He allowed the younger man to work, accepted the loss of early rounds, gradually reduced the distance and increased his own output only when McGregor’s began to decline. By the time the tenth arrived, the contest had ceased to be competitive. The ending was therefore less a sudden knockout than the completion of a calculated process of exhaustion, with Mayweather’s experience over championship distances ultimately proving as important as his accuracy.

I never bought into the idea that Conor McGregor would beat Floyd Mayweather in a boxing ring. McGregor was a world-class combat athlete, no question, but boxing is a different trade and Mayweather had spent his whole life mastering it. What surprised me was how sensibly Conor approached the early rounds. He used his size, awkward stance and volume and actually nicked a few rounds while Floyd hardly threw.

But I always felt Mayweather was reading him rather than struggling with him. Once Floyd started walking forward from the fourth, the fight changed completely. McGregor’s punches lost their snap, his feet slowed, and the gaps became obvious. By the later rounds, Mayweather was landing clean right hands almost whenever he wanted. He finished with a 53 per cent connect rate to McGregor’s 26 percent, which tells you how the class gap widened.

The stoppage at 1:05 of the tenth was right for me. McGregor was exhausted and taking clean shots without answering properly.

I give McGregor credit for lasting as long as he did, but this was never really about whether he could outbox Mayweather. He couldn’t. It was about how long Floyd chose to take before proving it.