By Corey Erdman
For about three rounds, the majority of the boxing world held its breath.
Over the course of nine minutes, Floyd Mayweather looked like he wasn't doing exactly what he wanted inside the boxing ring for the first time in who knows how long, and the man standing across from him punching him as it was happening was an MMA fighter, Conor McGregor.
Put another way, Conor McGregor may have actually given us more doubt about whether Floyd Mayweather would win than any fighter during any fight in recent memory.
Then Mayweather started punching.
As the judges' scorecards would eventually show, even before Mayweather stopped McGregor in the 10th round, he had been controlling the bout. Dave Moretti had it 87-83, Burt Clements 89-82 and Guido Cavalleri 89-81, all in favor of Floyd.
For three rounds, the boxing hardcores who swore up and down that McGregor wouldn't lay a hand on Mayweather fell victim to what made this fight possible in the first place. Just based on McGregor's posture in the first round, with his chin up in the air and narrow stance, it was clear he was new to the sport and would have difficulty keeping an opponent—let alone an all-time great--off of him. But as Mayweather kept marching forward and didn't throw anything, we started to wonder if there was something to all this faith in the Irishman.
Though Mayweather could do big business with almost anybody, there wasn't another combat sports athlete on the planet he could have done more business with than McGregor. As Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza pointed out during the press tour, “this fight happened because of the fans.” It's possible that neither man was totally serious about making the fight happen, but then the articles, the segments and the tweets never stopped, and the tenor of many of them was that McGregor had a chance.
Then when the fight was made, the odds quickly plummeted from 25-1 to almost 3.5-1 by the time the opening bell rang. Save for some late, big money on Mayweather in the form of six separate million dollar bets, the overwhelming majority of wagers were on McGregor, even as the line narrowed. People were betting on him at any number, even when it no longer presented value when weighed against his chances.
"Volume-wise, pre-fight, it's I would say even 100 times bigger than any fight we've ever seen before, Bovada sportsbook manager Kevin Bradley told VICE Sports last week. "If McGregor wins, we're talking a massive, massive loss for us."
McGregor has an allure about him that causes his fans to talk about him as if he's a baseball player from the turn of the century. The way people took at face value that “Josh Gibson hit a ball from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia,” McGregor supporters legitimately believe he envisions results and can then go out and create them at will, giving him the name “Mystic Mac.”
Unfortunately there is no way to hide from the truth inside the boxing ring. McGregor believers were convinced that because he was big and “not overspecialized,” that he would flummox a professional boxer with pure power and awkwardness. Not surprisingly, that was just wishful thinking. The thing about specialization is that the practitioner takes the time to learn ways to deal with very specific problems. In a UFC fight, McGregor would have many options if his punches stopped landing or if he were getting hit too often. In a boxing match, he didn't have those options at his disposal—he just had his underdeveloped boxing skills.
While the result was indeed better for McGregor than what should have reasonably been expected, watching the fight again detached from the in the moment shock, it's easy to view the fight as a veteran simply walking a novice down and carrying him for a little while. Go to your local boxing club and watch the old pro sparring the newbie, with the trainer telling him to “put some pressure on him, move him around the ring.” That scene would look oddly similar to what unfolded at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.
“He’s a lot better than I thought he was. He used different angles. He was a tough competitor. But I was the better man tonight," Mayweather told Jim Gray after the fight. "Our gameplan was to take our time, go to him, let him shoot all his heavy shots early, and then take him out at the end down the stretch."
Prior to the bout, Showtime analyst and former McGregor sparring partner Paulie Malignaggi spoke at length about the gradual mental pressure an experienced boxer could put a newcomer in by simply closing the gap and moving forward. Mayweather did exactly that. He didn't have to step back once, didn't have to linger at range shoulder rolling and trying to make McGregor miss. He simply walked forward with his hands up, never encountering any trouble, picking shots off until his opponent ran out of both ideas and energy at the same time.
“I guaranteed to everybody that this wouldn’t go the distance. Boxing’s reputation was on the line,” said Mayweather after the bout. "He’s a tough competitor and I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see. I owed the fans for the Pacquiao fight. I had to come straight forward and give the fans a show, and that’s what I did.”
In the end, McGregor was not just outsmarted by Mayweather, he was pushed around and knocked out by an old man who was likely giving up at least fifteen pounds on fight night.
Nobody, at any point, for any length of time, should have expected anything different.
