Buckley:Floyd Mayweather's TKO over fatigued Conor McGregor a fitting end

Buckley:Floyd Mayweather's TKO over fatigued Conor McGregor a fitting end



LAS VEGAS — So it turns out we were right about who was going to win this fight.



Here’s where we were all wrong: It was a fight after all. A real fight, certainly not a great fight, but a fight with sufficient power and passion and give and take that anyone who watched, in person or at home, at some point reached a very tricky crossroads: They weren’t completely sure who was going to win.



And that was the real upset last night at T-Mobile Arena.



Yes, it ended with an aging Floyd Mayweather getting an inexperienced Conor McGregor up against the ropes, hitting the Irishman with a flurry of lefts and rights, bloodying up the Irishman to a degree that the fight was finally halted. But it was the bloody 10th round before referee Robert Byrd stopped it, earning Mayweather a technical knockout and improving his record to 50-0, surpassing Brockton legend Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 mark.



But unless you were Floyd Mayweather himself or deeply embedded in his camp, you simply wanted to abandon common sense and let this fight go on — not just to bring truth to your ticket stub or your Pay-per-view investment but because it was a truly entertaining event.



Even McGregor wanted it to continue. Ok, duh: Of course he wanted it to continue. But speaking with Showtime reporter Jim Gray after it was over, it was the way he said he wanted it to continue that went beyond mere words.



"I thought it was close though and I thought it was a bit of an early stoppage,” he said. “I was just a little fatigued. He was just a lot more composed with his shots.



“I have to give it to him, that's what 50 pro fights will do for you,” he said. “I've been strangled on live TV and came back. When you're in here in the squared circle, everything is different. Let the man put me down. That’s fatigue, that's not damage.”



He was smiling. He was happy. Yes, he was guaranteed to make $30 million from this fight, and $30 million will make anyone happy. But Conor McGregor boxed last night — again, not superbly— and he did have a plan, even if the plan was flawed. He was going to take it to Mayweather in the early rounds, and he did. He was going to be brash, aggressive, and he was.



But despite his nearly two-year absence from the ring, Mayweather never lost his defensive skills. So he let McGregor do his thing, let him the first three rounds. And then be began to take over. By the ninth round, he was hammering away at McGregor; the 10th, then, was just a waiting game. The fight was stopped with 1:55 remaining in the round.



“Our game plan was to take our time, go to him, let him shoot his shots early and then take him out down the stretch,” Mayweather said. “We know in MMA he fights for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, he started to slow down. I guaranteed to everybody that this wouldn't go the distance.”



Sure. But Mayweather didn’t stop McGregor so much as McGregor stopped McGregor. That’s a perfectly legitimate way to win a fight, but it’s easy to agree, if grudgingly, with McGregor’s post-fight assessment: He was just fatigued. Not woozy, not dazed, not wobbly, not punch-drunk. He was fatigued.



Now fatigue can lead to droopy arms, and droopy arms can lead to a terrific right to the head, and a terrific right to the head can lead to serious injury. Byrd, then, was just doing his job.



There was lots of post-fight mending of fences, with McGregor saying of Mayweather, “He's composed, he's not that fast, he's not that powerful, but boy is he composed in there.”



Said Mayweather, “He's a lot better than I thought he'd be. He's a tough competitor, but I was the better man tonight.”



The boxing people said it was a big night for boxing. The UFC people said it was a big night for UFC.



But it was more than that. This was a big night for entertainment — and a bad night for anyone who truly wanted to buy it but was thwarted by Showtime glitches.



“These things happen,” said Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions.



But when they happen on that rare night when a fight not only reaches the level of its hype but far surpasses item — now that’s a right to the jaw.