He couldn’t resist.
They were very respectful of each other following the bout, but words were exchanged during Conor McGregor’s fight against Floyd Mayweather. The pair finally stepped into the ring in the early hours of Sunday morning in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, after a build-up that seemed to last for centuries.
As many predicted, Mayweather emerged victorious in his 50th professional bout against the MMA fighter making his debut in the sport.
However, the Irishman didn’t disgrace himself.
He gave it everything https://t.co/sG0po5tAYK
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) August 27, 2017
McGregor started the fight aggressively, landing some punches from awkward angles and arguably won two of the opening three rounds. Mayweather then took control, as he always does, and began landing combinations of his own. As McGregor fatigued, Mayweather capitalised and the fight was stopped in the 10th round when the referee stepped in as the Irishman was no longer protecting himself from punches.
It wasn’t a vintage performance from Mayweather, and McGregor said he felt the contest ended too soon, but it was the right result.
The two men were very respectful of each other immediately following the fight, and in the post-fight press conference. Which won’t come as a surprise, as they’ve earned hundreds of millions of dollars for the event.
However, Mayweather engaged in some trash talk during the bout, particularly in the fifth round, when the American pushed McGregor.
When asked following the fight what he had said to his opponent, the 40-year-old said:
“I said, ‘You still haven’t knocked me out? You said it wouldn’t go past four, when are you going to use your power?'”
Mayweather also said McGregor was “solid” and that the 29-year-old was a powerful puncher, but that did not deter him from coming forward against the MMA fighter.
“I still have a hell of an IQ and I’m still a thinker. His punching power is solid but I’ve felt it before so I kept coming forward. It wasn’t the kind of power that stopped me coming forward. I told you guys I’d come straight ahead. I could have sat back and counter-punched. My plan was to let him shoot heavy shots and take him down the stretch. I wanted to let him shoot heavy shots from the beginning.”
Mayweather retires with a perfect record of 50 wins in 50 professional fights.
