I`ve heard different responses to that bout back in 2017 but was anyone dissapointed by what they saw? Did MMA fans think Conor was going to do better than he did? I thought he boxed well up to a point.
Conor did the best he could considering the circumstances. It was very very obvious to any hardcore boxing fan that Floyd did not take the fight seriously at all. He dead set was deliberately not trying up until about rd 5 or so. Floyd Mayweather does not fight like that against proper elite boxing opposition. In boxing terms Conor was a complete joke and Floyd treated him as such. I'm not having a go at Conor because Floyd should have totally owned him in a boxing ring the same as Conor would own Floyd in a mma cage. It was a complete circus fight for idiot casual fans who know nothing about boxing or mma. Took Conor out of action for a good 1.5 yrs where he was not defending his ufc title against the top guys like TFerg, Khabib etc etc therefore causing a ridiculous log jam of contenders not getting their chance.
Surely you realize Floyds lack of output in the early going had more to do with not knowing what to expect other then Conor likely coming out hard early trying to finish Floyd in the 1st half of the fight,then it did about Floyd not trying or him carrying Conor thru those early rounds. I agree that the fight was a farce and was nothing more then a money grab from all those involved,the result and how the fight would play out being fairly predictable despite Conor winning those early rounds easily. Floyd was clearly the better of the 2 and starting to open up on Conor in last couple rounds as Conors poor conditioning began to show again with the referee jumping in at the 1st chance he got to stop the fight. Based on the referee and 2 out of 3 judges giving Conor only 1 of the early rounds,it would seem Conor never had a chance outside of a KO as boxing officials must have been worried as some of the hard core boxing fans were about the unthinkable happening with Floyd losing to an 0-0 MMA fighter
Yes Conor in MMA fights won his titles v guys much smaller than him aside from Diaz who beat him and gave him hell in the rematch, he extends his lead arm so it is always a threat in your face, he did that to Floyd plus he`s a southpaw and Floyd had problems with southpaws, you can`t use the philly shell v a southpaw, he didn`t really use that v Conor much.
Don't forget Conor badly hurt Floyd to the body late in the fight. Of course the ref stepped in and gave Floyd plenty of time to recover before McGregor could finish him off with a wheel-kick ,rear naked choke, or my personal favorite a cartwheel kick.
I cringed whenever Conor threw hammer fists and climbed on Floyd's back. Floyd didn't rep boxing all that well whenever he would turn his back to Conor and bend over as a defensive tactic. And I thought the referee was getting too involved as he was practically yelling at Conor for any awkward move he made.
Conor's footwork literally ran rings around Floyd and PBF should be embarrassed he didn't own Conor from the first bell.