Mayweather vs McGregor: Money fight seems to have paid off

Boxing’s sporting reputation was enhanced considerably when Floyd Mayweather defeated Conor McGregor in the early hours of yesterday morning in Las Vegas.

Mayweather, who came out of a two-year retirement to fight the mixed martial arts superstar, showed all his experience and class to record a 10th round technical knockout win over the Irishman in the super welterweight bout in front of a massive global audience.

The 40-year-old American, 11 years McGregor’s senior, was patient and composed in the opening three rounds before wearing his opponent down in the latter stages of the bout. The victory saw Mayweather improve his record to an incredible 50-0, surpassing legendary boxer Rocky Marciano’s mark of 49-0.

So much was at stake for the sport of boxing. One of the best boxers of his time taking on the popular mixed martial arts fighter making his professional boxing debut.

In the build-up to the multimillion-dollar fight, watched across more than 200 countries, many experts believed it was nothing more than a circus and would prove to be a farce and cheapen the sport.

But McGregor surprised many as he put in a solid performance, particularly in the early rounds, to make sure the fight lived up to its billing. But there’s a reason why Mayweather has never been defeated. Strategically he wore his opponent down and the referee called the fight early with McGregor all but off his feet in the 10th.

After the fight, Mayweather insisted it was his last, while McGregor vowed to return to Ultimate Fighting Championship action and didn’t rule out the possibility of more boxing appearances.

In a day and age where every sport is looking for new ways to make their product more appealing to the demanding public, boxing’s brave move to stage a cross-sport bout looks to have worked.