Floyd Mayweather: ‘I wanted to go out with a bang’

One of the key points to take from the madness of Mayweather-McGregor is this: maybe the word ‘circus’ should not have such negative connotations when it comes to unnarmed combat.

After all, the circus is staged purely on entertainment. It involves people parting with their hard-earned cash and going out to a big top of an evening. In those few hours beneath the canvas, spectators should be treated to things they don’t see in their everyday life.

They should be entertained by whoever has honed their body for long enough to pull off something out of the ordinary.

And, in Las Vegas, inside the T-Mobile Arena, the old circus master resisted the early assault from a snarling and unpredictable force before displaying his ultimate power over it.

It was said that, in the height of the circus popularity, often the most memorable nights took place when something went wrong, the lion broke free or an elephant sat on an acrobat.

But here in Sin City, eventually, everything went just about how the majority had predicted it would. At one end of the spectrum were the boxing snobs who sneered at the fight, placing their bets that Conor McGregor would not land a punch throughout his contest with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

At the other, big UFC fans said that this martial artist was capable of knocking the undefeated five-weight world champion out cold.

In reality, the vast majority of people fell somewhere in the middle, predicting that an early onslaught from the unorthodox McGregor would eventually be figured out by the genius of Mayweather. Then, as a result of being familiar with 25 minutes at most in the Octagon, the Dublin man would tire, allowing Mayweather to take him out. It was exactly thus.

“In the first three rounds, I got a little bit over eager,” McGregor said. “I was like ‘this is actually very easy’. Then his composure started to show through.” Indeed, one judge gave the debutant all of the first three rounds.

The other two judges, however, only gave him the first which seemed very harsh.

But, although he looked uncomfortable, Mayweather’s plan was clear. He might not have anticipated shipping a big uppercut in the first round, for instance, but he was very happy to let McGregor burn himself out early on before taking over.

He waited until the ninth round to really turn the screw. There is a maximum of 25 minutes in UFC fights and the ninth, three-minute round of this contest, therefore, represented the point at which McGregor ticked into unchartered territory. He did brilliantly to see out the round but he was battered so severely in the opening minute of the 10th that referee Robert Byrd stepped in after 70 seconds.

McGregor added: “I feel I held my own. I thought it was 5-4 going into round 10. I enjoyed the fight. It was a great contest. A lot of stuff I’ll take with me in my training. I thought I smoked him in the early rounds and I would have liked to see the end of round 10.”

Mayweather, meanwhile, revealed afterwards that his ‘brittle hands’, the result of 50 professional fights and 92 more as an amateur, had precluded him from sparring in the month before the clash.

“I wanted my hands to be 100% for the fight,” he explained. I wanted to go out with a bang, I told you there would be blood, sweat and tears. He shocked me.”

And Mayweather was not the only one. Whether you thought that McGregor could not win, or that he simply could not lose — there was some solace to be found within the circus.

It is unlikely that boxing and mixed martial arts will ever come together on this scale and in this manner again. But if they do — it might just be worth the trip.