Some Thoughts on the McGregor/Mayweather Fight

I’m not really a boxing fan, but I wanted to watch this fight as a McGregor fan. I went into it with no expectations; I knew chances of McGregor winning were slim, but also believed that he had a slim shot early in the match. Here are my thoughts:

• I expected Mayweather to do what he did…go easy for the first few rounds so McGregor could tire himself out. I didn’t expect Mayweather to go on the offensive as much as he did later in the match; part of it was his typical style of fighting. I should have known better; a guy like Mayweather should be on the offensive against a guy without the boxing background.
• McGregor’s major flaw was his approach to each round; he’d go out each round throwing and tire out by the end of the round. As each round went on, he tired quicker (as expected) to the point he couldn’t keep his hands up in the 10th.
• I thought Mayweather was trying to trap McGregor into some illegal hits for the DQ. Mayweather kept dropping his head inviting a punch to the back of the head; McGregor went for it a couple of times and there were a few other instances where he stopped mid-punch. Mayweather also would turn his back on McGregor. He was baiting him.
• The judges were on crack if they thought McGregor didn’t win at least the first 3 rounds. Mayweather threw 12 punches in the first 2 rounds. While McGregor didn’t land as many power punches, he was the offense at the beginning.
• If this fight would have ended like the last under-card fight, people would have been very upset. That fight ended with a “knockout” by punch to the back of the head. The guy down could have gotten up, but he was trying to get a DQ instead.

If McGregor would have won, this would have been the end of boxing as we know it. The sport is already in the decline, which some already attribute to the rise of MMA. There is also a lack of household names in boxing.

If an MMA guy came in and defeated the greatest boxer in recent memory, it would have officially been the handoff to the UFC and other MMA organizations.

Boxing will need to capitalize on this; unfortunately there aren’t the household names in boxing like there was 20 to 30 years ago when Tyson was huge. There are so many weight classes and championships, the sport has gotten watered down. As a former wrestler, I get the need for weight classes; I just feel like if you cut them back and push for more heavy weight boxers, you’ll have a more interesting sport.