Floyd Mayweather has officially passed Rocky Marciano.
With his 10th round TKO victory over Conor McGregor, Mayweather moves to 50-0 to pass the great Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0. At a time in sports where most people don’t seem to appreciate accomplishments as much as they should, this is certainly an incredible milestone by Mayweather.
Mayweather looked to be experiencing some rust earlier in the fight and was definitely down on the scorecards heading into the fifth round. From there on out, he and McGregor traded flurries and well-timed hooks and Mayweather started to look like himself. At one point, Floyd even flashed a smile. Conor started to show signs of fatigue heading into the ninth round and in the tenth round, Floyd finished him off with Referee Robert Byrd stepping in to stop the fight.
What else is there to say about Mayweather? His name will always be among the greatest boxers of all-time. With a perfect record, it’s hard not to place him top three. Through exciting flashes during his “Pretty Boy” Floyd years or precise striking during his run as “Money” Mayweather, Floyd can now leave the sport of boxing with his name etched in the history books forever. He certainly earned it, leaving a lot of memories along the way.
On the other end of this fight is Conor McGregor. McGregor silenced all of his critics by taking Mayweather into the 10th round and looking strong during the early parts of the fight. McGregor appeared to turn the momentum in the 8th round but ran out of gas, ultimately succumbing to Mayweather at the 1:05 mark of the 10th round.
As Floyd heads into retirement, we are left to ask Conor what’s next?
For a guy who boxed for the first time professionally, he held his own and showed a lot of promise against Mayweather. He even landed more punches than Manny Pacquiao did against Mayweather in 12 rounds, as McGregor had “PacMan” beat 111 to 81. That’s awfully impressive and only falls 6 shots short of Canelo Alvarez’ showing against Floyd, per MMAFighting.com.
Punches landed against Mayweather:
Canelo: 117
McGregor: 111
Pacquiao: 81#mayweathermcgregor— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) August 27, 2017
Could a grudge match with former sparring partner Paulie Malignaggi take place in between the ropes? Would he be willing to take a step back in skill level and tune up his abilities in the ring, possibly setting himself up for a run in boxing. At 29 years old, McGregor has a lot of time to find his stride if he wanted to. Quite honestly, another marquee fight would draw eyes from all over to see if Conor can catch a boxer. He may not have caught Floyd Mayweather, but neither could forty-nine other men. It would be interesting to see if he could pick up a victory against another opponent of lesser status.
The more likely route is McGregor returning back to the Octagon to defend his UFC Lightweight Championship against either Kevin Lee or Tony Ferguson, who meet at UFC 216 to determine the Interim UFC Lightweight Champion. McGregor hasn’t defended the title since defeating Eddie Alvarez for it back in November of 2016 at UFC 205 and it has to be on the minds of the UFC and fellow fighters that the title needs to be defended soon. McGregor can set himself up with a few intriguing fights in the Octagon as well, with the winner of Lee/Ferguson, Justin Gaethje, Khabib Nurmagomedov and even a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz being of the most appealing opponents.
What will the “The Notorious” do next? We don’t know. One thing’s for certain though. Whatever he does decide to do next will be awe-inspiring, because that’s the way he has lived his career.
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