By Tom Donelson (BWAA)
Author, Member of Boxing Writers Association of America
The big fight proved to be closer than expected and even had some drama before Mayweather finally ended it in the tenth. In the early rounds, Conor McGregor proved a riddle that it took Mayweather nearly half of the fight to solve and the Irish MMA fighter managed to land a few blows against Mayweather. Over the first five rounds, McGregor landed 51 punches to 40 for Mayweather as his style confused the boxing master but from sixth round to the end, Mayweather landed 130 punches to 60 punches, many of them power punches. From the fifth round, the fight started to change as Mayweather connected more consistently but it wasn’t until ninth that the fight entered its end phrase as McGregor wore down under the Mayweather pressure.
What are some of the lessons of the fight? First is that the talk about McGregor fighting his first boxing match was overdone if for no other reasons that MMA fighters actually do box as part of their fights and McGregor has knocked people out with his punches. Mayweather admitted that McGregor was better than anticipated and McGregor southpaw stance was awkward for Mayweather to solve. McGregor also played counter puncher and his jab was effective enough over the early rounds to allow him to land some solid upper cuts. McGregor won the first three rounds and the fourth was close as well.
The second lesson is that Mayweather may have won but he showed two years of ring rust and at times, reminded us that he indeed was forty. Mayweather still proved to have his accurate touch as he connected on nearly 60% of his power shots and overall, he connected on 53% of his punches compared to 26% for McGregor.
The Third lesson is that Floyd Mayweather is the master promoter and along with Dana White UFC publicity machine, he may end up with the biggest PPV sell of all times and remember the Mayweather/Pacquiao PPV attracted over four million. Mayweather is a businessman who fights but he also knew what the audience wanted and this crossover fight has the potential of helping both MMA and boxing as fans actually saw a competitive fight. Mayweather is the third athlete to earn billion dollars along with Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan.
The Fourth Lesson is that McGregor did well in his first official boxing match and even managed to land more punches in ten rounds than Pacquiao did in twelve rounds. The video released about his sparring session with Paul Malignaggi showed that he had boxing skills, so by going ten rounds with one of boxing best will enhance his own reputation and marketing.
The final lesson is what happens when a fighter takes control of his destiny. Mayweather is his own boss and keeps much of his earnings. Pacquiao had to split his take from his bout with Mayweather with Arum and a portion of Conor’s purse ends up in the UFC and White’s pocket. Mayweather along with De La Hoya have long controlled their destiny and kept much of the purses during the last portion of their career. They changed boxing since they showed that fighters can not only fight in the ring but they can promote their own fights. Both De La Hoya and Mayweather control their fate financially, and this could impact Conor McGregor and the UFC. On the average, boxers make more money than MMA fighters and McGregor finally earned a big pay day plus his performance will enhance his own status. The question for the UFC, will this open door for the top fighters get a higher share of the PPV gate.
This event should benefit both MMA and boxing as casual fans showed up to see the event and saw a competitive fight. For boxing, the next big event is Alvarez-Triple G’s and who knows, this event might provide a bump for the event.