Preview by Joseph Currier
After years of speculation, the fight finally being announced, a global press tour, and some huge hype during fight week, one of the biggest combat sports spectacles of all time is finally here.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor will meet in a boxing match at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada tonight. It’s the matchup that so many people thought would never happen as boxing’s pay-per-view king steps into the ring against the biggest star in the UFC.
Aside from their massive paydays, Mayweather is looking to extend his record to a perfect 50-0 and McGregor is aiming to pull off an upset that most seem to think is close to impossible.
The PPV is available for $99.95 and the main card begins at 9 p.m. Eastern. Mayweather and McGregor should be making their entrances around 11:15 p.m.
Dave Meltzer will take you through what is sure to be a memorable night.
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Our coverage will be limited to the main event which should start at about 11:15 p.m. Eastern time.
McGregor is doing a promo with Jim Gray. He’s very calm, talked about how confident he is. Said he’d be creative and spontaneous. He said he’d outclass him. He said he’d knock him out in the first round. Gray said it was a surprise to people that he made weight. That’s weird. He’s never missed weight and used to fight at 145. McGregor said he’d go into the ring near 170. so he’ll have probably 19 or 20 pounds on Mayweather.
Because of issues with people ordering, they are stalling for time even though we’re done the prelims.
The national anthems are over and now it’s time for the highlight packages. This fight is for the boxing version of the Million Dollar belt, but it’s sanctioned. Conor McGregor is coming out.
They are pushing this as if McGregor wins it’s one of the biggest upsets in history, but the odds at the sports books are not that long.
Mayweather is coming out with a mask on. I hope that’s not Toru Tanaka out there pretending to be Floyd.
Now Mauro Ranallo is talking about Gene LeBell vs. Milo Savage and Ali vs. Inoki. What about Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn?
Jimmy Lennon doing the ring announcing. Judges are Guido Cavelleri , Burt Clements and Dave Moondog Moretti.
McGregor out with two belts, even though in theory he should only have one. They called him a two-division champion. They stripped him one of those divisions. Mayweather is being booed. At least with Mayweather they say former five division champion.
First round: Floyd is making faces at him. The crowd is really booing Mayweather. Mauro talked about Joe Namath, Buster Douglas, but not Juice Robinson when it comes to biggest upsets in sports history. McGregor throwing punches that aren’t landing. McGregor is throwing. Mayweather finally threw a punch. McGregor is much bigger. Slow round. McGregor landed a left uppercut. McGregor’s round.
Second round: McGregor has him in the corner. McGregor threw punches and the ref said no hammer fists. Mayweather landed a punch. McGregor landed an uppercut and switched stances. Mayweather with a right to the body. McGregor landing more again. Mayeather is not throwing punches. McGregor holding and hitting. McGregor holding and hitting again. McGregor 20-18
Third round: McGregor with hammer fists to the top of the head. McGregor holding and hitting. McGregor is landing punches. Mayweather isn’t doing much here. Mayweather with body shot. McGregor with jabs. McGregor holding and hitting again. McGregor 30-27.
Fourth round: McGregor landing al kinds of punches. Mayweather looks bad, he’s doing nothing. Nice left by McGregor,. Mayweather back to the body. Now Mayweather coming back. McGregor is still landing more. Mayweather coming back now. McGregor is still landing a lot more Mayweather with a nice right. McGregor 40-36. This round could go either way. .
Fifth round: McGregor landing jabs. McGregor landing more punches. The key to this is this is not the Mayweather I’ve seen before, Mayweather landed a right. Mayweather now moving forward but he’s not throwing. McGregor landed a left. Mayweather shoved him after. Close round, I think Mayweather here, 49-46.
Sixth round: Mayweather turned his back to him. The announcers are saying Mayweather looks like a shadow of himelf. Mayweather is now taking over. It looks like he was waitng for McGregor to tire. McGregor is landing punches again. Mayweather landed but McGregor back. McGregor holding and hitting. Mayweather landed a good right. Mayweather’s round 58-56.
Seventh round: Mayweather with some body shots. McGregor hasn’t shown a lot of power in his punches. McGregor is landing but Mayweather’s shots are harder which is the oppostie of what people expected. McGregor holding and hitting again. Mayweather is starting to land solid punches. McGregor is tired now. Mayweather’s round 67-66 McGregor.
Eighth round: McGregor opened throwing punches. McGregor landed a nice left. Mayweather with two rights. Mayweather landing cleaner shots. Mayweather with solid shots but McGregor landed a combination. Close round but I’d go Mayweather 76-76 even after eight.
Ninth round: McGregor landed a good body shot. McGregor landing more now. McGregor is landing a lot of punches. Mayweather with a good right. Another hard right by Mayweather. Mayweather landing solid punches. Mayweather is hurting him with solid punches. McGregor is tired now. McGregor looks really tired now. Big left by Mayweather. Big right by Mayweahter. McGregor trying to tie him up. Mayweather landing big shots and McGregor is in trouble. Mayweather’s round 86-85 ahead for the first time.
Tenth round: Mayweather is landing big shots on him now. McGregor is about to go down. The ref stopped it. Mayweather won at 1:05 via TKO..
You have to call this a moral win for McGregor.
Mayweather said we gave people a good fight. Said McGregor was a lot better than I thought he was. Said he felt he owed people for the Pacquiao fight. The game plan was to let him shoot his heavy shots early. The game plan was for him to shoot heavy shots in the beginning, MMA is 25 minutes so they expected after 25 minutes he’d slow. Said he guaranteed everyone this fight wouldn’t go the distance. He thanked fans from Ireland. Asked him about 50-0, he said Rocky Marciano is a legend, he looks forward to going into the Hall of Fame and looks forward for Jim Gray going into the Hall of Fame as well. He said for sure this was his last night. Tonight I chose the right dance partner to dance with, Conor McGregor is a hell of a champion.
McGregor interview. Said he took the early rounds, but he’s composed, he’s not that fast but he’s composed. Said he thought it was close and an early stoppage, said he’d have liked to have let it keep going. Said he keeps wobbly and comes back. He’s more composed and more experienced in the latter part of the fight but that was 50 pro fights. I’ve been stranged and came back, I have to let it go. He said he thought it was fatigued. Let the man put me down. Said he was like that in the Diaz fight and came back. Said he’d fight in the UFC again. He said I thought it was close, had him in the early rounds. Said they should have let him go, said he was clear spoken and they shouildn’t have stopped it.
The stoppage was fair. He was exhausted. Mayweather did his game plan, rested up and waited for McGregor to tire.
McGregor did the right type of interview. Scores were 89-81, 89-82 and 87-83 . The judges gave Mayweather every round after round three. Honestly, the idea the first two scores were ridiculous because McGregor won the first three. After that there were close rounds before Mayweather took over late.
