After all the back-and-forth between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas finally played host to a mega-fight that has been nearly two years in the making.
Despite all prognostications of doom for McGregor, he lasted until the 10th round. Mayweather won the fight by TKO at 1:05 of the 10th round, after McGregor was on the ropes, prompting referee Robert Byrd to stop the fight.
The fight lived up to the reputation that both Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor helped sell before the fight even started. It is already one of the most lucrative fights of all time, with McGregor expected to take home upwards of $100 million, while Mayweather reportedly made over $300 million.
For McGregor to win, many thought he had to come after Mayweather in the first few rounds. Which was exactly what he did. Many were impressed at how McGregor attacked early on, even winning the first round 10-9 on all three of the judge’s scorecards.
Judges Burt Clements and Guido Cavalleri had Mayweather winning rounds 2-9 by a score of 10-9. Dave Moretti even had McGregor winning 10-9 in rounds two and three. Moretti had the fight 87-83 for Mayweather, while Clements had 89-82 for Mayweather, and Cavalleri scored it 89-81 for Mayweather.
So for all the hype and Showtime all-access productions, that’s it. Floyd will ride off into the sunset of retirement at 50-0 for his career. But while Floyd certainly won the fight, he didn’t look nearly as dominant as he once was. At 40 years old, he’ll stay in the business as a promoter, but his fighting days are most certainly over.
With McGregor’s future comes an interesting conundrum. He gained respect by many across the sport for standing nearly 10 rounds with arguably the best boxer in the last 20 years. But will he go back to MMA or stick with boxing? When asked about it, he wasn’t sure which way he’d lean.
McGregor could definitely live to box another day, and this mega-fight between two titans of combat sports will go down as a fairly memorable one that delivered for the fans who watched on pay-per-view.
