I don't really care if people wanna call him 50-0 or 49-0 but coming up you fight 4 rd fights, 6 fights against bums. He just fought 1 in his last fight instead of his first 10.

Other fighters fought tons of cans in their careers. They just didn't do it on PPV and make 250M for it.

good stuff, I cant argue with most of what you said and I absolutely 100% agree about the people at the very top being on another level in their own sport.

But I also think there is a general sentiment in this thread that MMA fighters would all be bum ass boxers who couldn't make it, so many of them just went and learned bjj/grappling instead and took up MMA. i think that is completely wrong, def elitist, and an overall horrible take from a single, circus type crossover fight.

Something I never posted ITT but had talked to people about irl was the Clash of the Codes rugby games that have happened. Rugby League and Rugby Union are fundamentally similar games with a decent set of differences. Back in 1996, a professional League club played a professional Union club twice, once in each code. The League side won the League match 82-9 and lost the Union match 19-44. In 2003 a similar thing happened except that they played a half of each game. The Union side won their half 41-0, then lost the League half 39-0.

My point is, skillsets which look superficially similar are actually very different at elite level, and being well versed in something similar can actually be a problem because of all the subtle instinctive stuff which is built into your brain.

Well, let's complete the thought. Would boxers be good MMA fighters? I would say absolutely not.

They are simply different disciplines that share certain traits like hand striking. That's where it ends, though. Due to the nature of grappling and leg attacks it changes the stances and defenses. Boxing doesn't have to worry about any of that, there are literally 4 punches in boxing and only so many strategies. There are more variables in MMA, which is why it's so much harder to be dominant. If anything, I'd argue that's a reason why it isn't more popular - the absolute best MMA fighters seem to lose much more than the best boxers because they wind up facing a person who just happens to be really good at one thing that catches them.

Indeed, Rhonda Rousey did really well grappling and then messed up her entire career by trying to strike with strikers (I'm still absolutely baffled at this, wtf was she thinking and how did her coaches allow her to even attempt this?). That's similar to what Conor did here. He's not a boxer and there is no shame in it, that's not what he does. Michael Jordan couldn't play baseball and that doesn't take away from his dominance in basketball.

To be completely honest, I think Rhonda Rousey could actually beat Mayweather in a street fight right now as long as they were within 30 lbs of each other. Conor would actually kill him unless someone stepped in.

I cannot believe boxing enthusiasts are going down the "floyd let McGregor punch him in the face whilst throwing barely anything back" though the early rounds. Floyd throughout most of his career has been a slow starter (especially in his last 10-15 fights) his style was always to try preserve energy by boxing defensively which would give him the opportunity to figure out what his opponents patterns was and create a game plan to counter those in the most efficient way.

Did floyd let everyone he fought in the last 10 or so years punch him in the early rounds or was it just Conor?

If floyd comes out an walks conor down like he was in the 7th-10th rounds then he has got a legit shot at getting KO'd.

It was just Connor. He threw like five punches in the first round against Connor and like ten in the second. Against Manny Floyd threw 36 and 32 punches in the first and second round. Floyd would never do what he did against Connor in early rounds against a real boxer.

Let's talk about this rationally. Is Conor Mcgregor as good as a boxer as Ricky Hatton was 10 years ago? I would think most people would agree that Conor is not.

The fight lasted 10 rounds because Mayweather wanted it to last 10 rounds. Floyd's dominance isn't due to his offense or defense (and make no mistake, his defense is masterful), it's due to his boxing IQ. He's said in previous interviews there is no set gameplan when he fights. He adjusts depending on the circumstances of each fight. Each fight has a different answer to solve and he does it on the fly. Poker players with one set gameplan are easy to beat. Poker players who adjust depending on circumstances are much more difficult to beat. Floyd is the latter at an insane level.

Floyd was in a situation where he was being paid an obscene amount of money and if he went out and just beat Conor in the first 3 rounds (which I firmly believe he could have done) it would have hurt his reputation. Floyd cares a lot about his reputation and he played it masterfully. He dragged the fight out exactly long enough to make people think he deserved the money. He didn't deserve the money, he could have destroyed Conor whenever he wanted. That's why he was punching him in the shoulder (which I've never seen him do before in casual observation). Floyd doesn't miss punches by 2 feet, he never has, and it makes me suspect he did all of this on purpose. He even said after the fight he wanted to give the fans a "show" because of the backlash he got from the Pacquio fight.

Yes, I believe Mayweather actually allowed Conor to hit him because he knew he was in no danger. Floyd was never, ever, in danger of being knocked out.

Unfortunately, my analysis of his mindset was wrong. I thought Mayweather, being the supremely egotistical prick he is, would want to end his career in a crushing fashion and solidify his legacy by destroying Conor. In hindsight, he did exactly what he was supposed to do by NOT crushing Macgregor and justifiably collecting his payday in a way that did no harm to his reputation.

This is exactly right.

How much of that was due to the unpredictability of McGregor? I think you have to bare in mind this wasn't your average boxing match. MMA guys fight in a unorthodox fashion (especially conor/Anderson silva) are able to hit you from angles boxers likely won't have ever seen or been hit from. Maybe Floyd just wanted more of a look at him in the early rounds, conor did land a few good shots to the body and that flush uppercut.

It was enough to win him the first 3 rounds comfortably. Which leads me onto my next question, how did 2/3 boxing judges score it that badly. Having it 8-1 going into the 10th is hilarious and just about sums boxing up.

Man if Conor apologists are this much still in his corner after that fight, thank god it didn't go any better (in reality) for him

Can we move this thread to some retirement center jfc

In answer to the Hatton question, probably not. I think Conor certainly has the talent/work ethic to be an elite boxer though.

I guess we will never know if shots was missed on purpose by floyd or if he was actually letting McGregor punch him.

I do think that Conor's footwork/hand speed/awkward angles give him opportunities to hit floyd early in the fight. Conor struggles with his cardio and gassing in fights. I honestly thought that with all the cardiovascular work he has been doing since Diaz 1 that he would have corrected by now. From about round 6-7 he looked absolutely bolloxed and lost his footwork and hand speed. Which is about the time where floyd just tucks his chin down/hands up and walks towards Conor knowing he hasn't got anything left in the tank.

I believe floyd doesn't adopt that strategy early in the fight whilst Conor is fresh and has a chance of catching floyd with some flush shots.

How can we not "still be in his corner" he done reasonably well against the best fighter boxing has ever seen.

The only disappointing thing was his inability to clear lactic acid and gassing in the fight half way through. Part of it will be his lack of experience in the ring but he definitely has a problem with it in the UFC as well.

Wil,

Floyd in his prime had the best footwork/speed/defense in the business. Those have gradually depleted over the years of boxing which has allowed his IQ to slowly take over in fights. He was always a smart fighter but it isn't the only thing which has given him his incredible boxing record.

nothing new, particularly whenever he's talking about boxing.

99% of messageboard posts about boxing technique or strategy/theory hurts my soul. RT's the 1%.

I disagree. Mayweather was great because of his IQ, defense, speed, and ability to bring it all together. He didn't punch the hardest, and he wasn't the fastest puncher in the world, and arguably wasn't the best defensive fighter. He was really good at figuring out how to win in very different circumstances. Floyd didn't have one single aspect that made him the best, he had a combination of different factors that achieved that. The smartest person in the world isn't the most successful person in the world, and I think that's a misconception that we as human beings constantly make. Just because you're good at one thing doesn't make you the best in other things.

You have to figure out how to maximize the things you are good at to get the best overall result. Mayweather was a master at combining all of his skills into a winning formula.

Most boxing fans don't think CMG did reasonably well. They think this match was the equivalent of a wwe match and completely scripted by FM to give the MMA and neutral fans what they wanted.

I'm late to this party, but I had already mq'd the first one wanting to bring up the one BLATANT time early where floyd CLEARLY purposely hit cm in the shoulder...it was the gif everyone has seen, when cm gets that uppercut in after (and bc of) floyd hitting his shoulder.

at the time, I'm telling my non-boxing fan friend that floyd hit him in the shoulder on purpose with 99.9% certainty. he was still drinking the Irish koolaid and told me I was full of ****. then afterwards, I made him watch it 4 or 5 times in a row and I changed my mind...100% he purposely hit his shoulder.

0% floyd ****ing mayweather just missed like that. and it was early enough that it had me briefly wondering if he was planning on losing but didn't want to run the risk of accidentally ko'ing cm first...

wasn't the 10 punches in the first two rounds, wasn't his seemingly lackadaisical attitude, those two things are what the cat does. maybe saturday was an extreme example, but those two things alone didn't have me wondering...that shoulder punch had me babbling to everyone in the room that either he was going to take a dive or I just watched an undefeated professional boxer PURPOSELY miss a clean shot.

but yeah...

Conor didn't do "reasonably" well at all. He was actually completely embarassed, but it was due to something that only true boxing enthusiasts realize - that Conor never controlled the fight for one second of the entire match.

People just truly don't understand what they are looking at. Mayweather dictated every single second of the fight. Floyd allowed Conor to survive, Conor didn't dictate Mayweather's actions at all.

It is the equivalent of playing a game against a child. You allow that child to play well so they don't feel bad about themselves, yet you could have ended it whenever you wished. The people in this thread arguing for Mcgregor justify themselves by the amount of time the fight lasted. That fight only lasted that long due to Floyd, not to Mcgregor. If I let a 10 year old keep the score close in a basketball game for 30 minutes, it doesn't mean the 10 year old was really good because he lasted 30 minutes, it just means I allowed him to play for as long as I wanted him to.

I don't even blame him. He was paid so much money he HAD to make it "look good". LOL at the idea that Floyd would punch someone in the shoulder. He's never done that in his ENTIRE CAREER, and now, all of a sudden, he's missing by 2 feet? That's like saying Tom Brady missed a wide receiver by throwing it into the stands behind him. It's virtually impossible.

It was a complete joke. I'm almost positive Floyd did all of this on purpose so people wouldn't criticize him after he collected 75 million dollars.

i will say that I also saw the shoulder punch and it was 100% intentional. the reason for that can be debated....but maybe just maybe, he actually does have interest in collecting another risk-free 200milly payday in a rematch against Conor and knew he had to make things interesting after the May-Pac snooze fest?

or maybe he just had some side action on a prop bet?

You sir, are a dumbass. Dude got 100 mil to cross sports for 40ish minutes of ring time and 6 months of promotions. Simple as that. Mayweather wanted more money, spotlight, and I will say surprisingly realized the PAC fight was pure garbage and wanted to end the career on a somewhat high note. That's it.

I know you probably feel the need to "defend" boxing so you can feel better about your childhood heroes, but the end game was clear. Talking any strategy outside of betting is silly. Both fighters won financially as well as improved their name recognition, as planned and expected.

Here's some more beautiful work from this one. I have no take on the conspiracy talk, but Floyd and "inaccurate" do not belong in the same sentence

There was nothing unpredictable about Conor, but Floyd doesn't take chances, so he waited two rounds to make sure that everything was as it seemed to be.

That "flush uppercut" did no damage. Floyd is rolling away from it and it's a weak punch. No good boxing judge scores it as anything but one of two or three punches landed by Conor in the whole fight. This isn't amateur boxing. What counts are punches that do damage.