If you ever needed proof that Conor McGregor proved the doubters wrong against Floyd Mayweather, this is it.
When Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather first became a reality, no one was quite sure what to believe.
McGregor boldly vowed to knock the greatest defensive boxer ever out in the first round. As most people expected, that didn’t happen. However, it was Mayweather’s somewhat bold prediction of the fight not going the distance that ended up materialising as he earned a superb 10th round TKO.
Outside of the two warriors taking part, the expectations of the boxing world and the MMA community were vastly different. Some MMA fans bought into McGregor’s unrivalled self-belief and thought that he could do the impossible, while the more grounded ones thought he would have some success, but ultimately lose.
A lot of folks from the realm of professional pugilism were sure that the man making his debut would end up being embarrassed by the master of the craft. The general consensus after the fact was that McGregor surpassed expectations by lasting that long and actually winning a few rounds.
Stop overthinking it https://t.co/ozwheQzl9J
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) August 27, 2017
Max Kellerman was one of McGregor’s biggest critics in the build up to the diamond-encrusted panty night. The boxing colour commentator thought that he would totally get outclassed to the point where he wouldn’t land a single punch.
In fact, he was so confident about this prediction that he even placed a sizeable wager with Brendan Schaub to back it up, or so the former UFC heavyweight fighter claimed.
However, once he witnessed McGregor personifying ‘Big Irish Balls’ in the T-Mobile Arena, he was blown away, as he told First Take.
“I want to start out by saying Conor McGregor deserves enormous credit. He is an exceptional fighter, an exceptional fighter. Even among champions he stands out.
“I know I said that he would not even lay a glove on Mayweather, not a clean punch, and I have a lot of people on Twitter saying he landed 111 punches – no he didn’t. But Conor did land about ten or a dozen punches over the course of ten rounds, which is actually more than most fighters land cleanly against Mayweather.”
That was very big of him, but to Kellerman’s credit, he’s one of the best in his field. If he had stuck to his guns even after seeing McGregor land forceful, clean shots, we would have been very surprised.
