May 4, 2024
Floyd Mayweather beats Conor McGregor with 10th round TKO in ‘The Money Fight’
In a result that shocked few, Floyd Mayweather. defeated Conor McGregor by technical knockout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday morning.
FLOYD Mayweather withstood an impressive early flurry from Conor McGregor to convincingly win Saturday night’s “Money Fight” at T-Mobile Arena with a 10th round technical knockout.
Mayweather, the former top ranked pound-for-pounder in boxing, experienced a few difficulties in the opening rounds against McGregor, who was moving over from his position as the biggest star in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and making his debut inside the ring.
However, in Round 10, with McGregor having visibly started to tire minutes earlier, Mayweather deliver a telling combination that ended the fight, with referee Robert Byrd stepping in to prevent any further punishment.
By then, it had already gone further than many expected. In the build-up to the much-hyped event, Mayweather promised to come forward and seek an early knockout. Ultimately, he took his usual risk-averse strategy in the opening rounds, not throwing a meaningful punch until 55 seconds into the fight.
However, while that gave some moments of excitement to the Irishman’s followers, it also left McGregor gassed, with his mouth open and his punches lacking snap.
By the 10th, McGregor barely had enough energy to stand, let alone throw punches and Mayweather moved in for the finish.
Mayweather’s victory took his professional career statistics to 50-0, one clear of the record held by Rocky Marciano. Many, however, will question whether those figures should come with an asterisk, given the obvious and vast gulf in quality and experience between himself and McGregor.
Regardless, at 40, and having secured another enormous payday, it is unlikely Mayweather will be seen in the ring again, and he even penned a farewell letter to his fans in the fight program.
McGregor had promised his unorthodox style would provide Mayweather with a tougher challenge than any he had previously faced. Ultimately though, McGregor’s lack of boxing prowess shined through clearly.
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Mayweather was fighting for the first time since beating Andre Berto in 2015 and feared in the lead-up to the contest if his time away would slow him down. It didn’t matter. This was always going to be an experiment and the answer was crystal clear — boxing and mixed martial arts are two different sports, and expertise at one of them does not guarantee success at the other.
McGregor’s loud insistence that he was poised to become the new “face of boxing” now seems a little foolish, although big nights and sizeable paychecks await him on his return to the UFC.
