The ‘Money Fight’ certainly attracted a lot of attention and, with that, as many critics as fans that were pleased with how it all played out.
This time last week, Conor McGregor was heading into his professional boxing debut and confidently predicting he would starch Floyd Mayweather Jr., the greatest boxer of his generation, inside a single round. Funnily enough, many of us were starting to believe him.
It seems crazy, in retrospect, to have thought McGregor could break through the defences of a man who was 49-0 heading into the fight and who had seen off the best Oscar De La Hoya, Canelo Alvarez and Manny Pacquaio could sling at him.
McGregor bulled into Mayweather from the first bell and gave a fine account of himself for the first four rounds before gradually slowing down and leaving himself open for the American to do some damage. Mayweather stopped the Dubliner in the 10th round but he had acquitted himself well on his pro debut.
One prediction that McGregor got right was something he and Mayweather did agree on before the bout took place – that all previous boxing pay-per-view records would be broken.
According to MMA Fighting, the fight is trending ‘to do somewhere in the mid-to-high four millions in domestic pay-per-view purchases’. The current record is reportedly 4.6m for Mayweather vs. Pacquaio in 2014 and that could yet be left in the shade.
Former UFC star Urijah Faber shared a video, earlier this week, of Dana White claiming the fight had exceeded 6.5m PPV buys. However, the UFC president may have been taking worldwide buys into account.
One thing we do know – as Mayweather himself might say – is that both fighters are taking a truckload of money out of the contest.
The captured Orangutan who obeyed the rules of a Circus and got filthy rich from it. pic.twitter.com/4kNw01BDAS
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 2, 2017
ESPN, who extensively covered the fight, have published an article that slates McGregor’s boxing technique and suggests Mayweather carried him to the 10th round to properly sell the ‘theatre’.
In an article headlined ‘Why are we praising Conor McGregor for losing to Floyd Mayweather?’, Dotun Akintoye writes:
“It’s still strange to see how many people don’t seem to get what they watched last Saturday night… The truth is McGregor was merely a prop in a perfectly executed piece of theater [sic].”
Akintoye continues, “Let’s start with a basic observation. It appears McGregor did not learn much about boxing during his training camp.
“He did not learn how to throw a punch. He doesn’t know how to start the motion in his legs and hips and transfer his body weight through the punch. He doesn’t have even average power in the ring. He also did not have any grasp of the basic rules.”
Both men put on a performance, Akintoye states, they did not engage in a proper boxing contest.
This fight will be discussed for years to come but, whatever side you’re on, we can all appreciate that uppercut…
https://twitter.com/squadxtra/status/901662116058341376
