Showtime PPV: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor & Nathan Cleverly vs. Badou Jack RBR.

The replay is on Showtime RIGHT NOW.

 

I watched the replay tonight and changed my score again.

Round 1 McGregor 10-9
Round 2 McGregor 10-9
Round 3 McGregor 10-9
Round 4 McGregor 10-9 Close
Round 5 Mayweather 10-9 Close
Round 6 Mayweather 10-9 Close
Round 7 Mayweather 10-8
Round 8 McGregor 10-9 Close
Round 9 Mayweather 10-9 Dominant
Round 10 Mayweather Wins By TKO

McGregor clearly won the first three, there's no debating that, and that had zero to do with Floyd "letting him" steal those rounds, McGregor's awkward angles, rhythm and timing, genuinely presented Floyd with a riddle, Conor clearly had power early, as evidence by the uppercuts and jabs snapping Floyd's head back, so Floyd didn't know where the shots were coming from and was afraid to let his hands go out of fear of a counter. He lost thse 3 rounds, he didn't give them away.

The 4th round Conor took as well, the pop on McGregor's punches started fading, and that emboldened Floyd a little, and he started figuring out Conor's timing and found the range a little, but Floyd did too little to legit win the round, Conor was still more active. The 5th remained competitive, it wasn't a whitewash where Floyd completely took over, Conor switched to the Tyson Furyesque volume approach, and whether people want to admit it or not, those shots landed, and those shots counted. Floyd was potshotting one at a time, he did do enough to potshot his way to edging that one.

The sixth was a little easier for Floyd, but it was similar to the fifth, no overwhelming shutout or schooling occurred. Floyd looked awkward and was still getting tagged far too much, his legs looks stiff and clearly walking down someone isn't his forte, but I think he had to commit to that strategy, because it was his only option, if he tried to outbox McGregor in the center of the ring, he would have failed. The master boxer couldn't decode the awkwardness of McGregor, so he had to go caveman on him and do his best Maidana impression to win this match. The seventh Floyd took over and was fairly dominant, he found the proper range and landed several hurtful shots, probably aside from the 9th and 10th his best round.

The eighth I initially scored for Floyd, and I was shocked to see Farhood score it for McGregor, so I really wanted to pay attention to it the second time I scored it, and I'll be damned, we were all wrong, and Farhood was right, McGregor was consistently making Floyd miss, all the while doing his best Calzaghe-Lacy impression, pitty patting the hell out of Floyd, he landed a shitton on Floyd in the eighth, and while the few shots Floyd landed was almost enough to shade the round, it wasn't quite enough to swing it towards him.

The ninth Byrd probably intentionally blew McGregor's big moment, Floyd was clearly hurt by the shot to the body, it wasn't a low blow, it was a hook, had Byrd allowed Conor to continue going to work, Floyd may have ended up taking a knee, but Byrd gave Mayweather time to recover, and in all likelihood based on how bad he was hurt decided to really set down on his shots and go for the KO, that coupled with Conor gassing, that was the beginning of the end.

The tenth, Conor was done, he was completely gassed, it was just a matter of time, Byrd's stoppage was fine.

But here's the reality, Floyd looked bad, his timing was off, his control of range was off, his defense was off, he was slow and he was forced into becoming a come forward plodder, not because he wanted to entertain the fans, not because he wanted to pay them back for letting them down with the Pac performance. He did it because that was the only way he could beat McGregor. He was in the ring with the better faster, slicker until he gassed counter puncher, who threw Floyd off his game entirely, who forced Floyd into doing something completely against his nature, he made him fight like a Mexican.

And all the fanboys who hate that style of boxing, who only seem to see clean counters from Floyd, and never notice all the shots landed by effective aggressors hailed Floyd for taking the fight to Conor and fighting like a beast, and only seemed to notice the shots landed by the aggressor Floyd this time, and conveniently ignored all of the clean sharp accurate counters Conor landed, and his effective underrated defense. Lovers of defensive fighting turned into bloodthirsty fans of hunter killers and only saw what they wanted to see, I loved seeing Floyd fight like that, I wish he'd have done that his entire career, but in doing so, he also managed to give up a ton of rounds eat a hell of a lot of clean shots that he tried to avoid, but couldn't, and arguably on a fair scorecard, needed a stoppage or KD for a decisive win, because make no mistake, Conor would have been ahead if Floyd wasn't the name here or if this were in the UK.

But bravo to Floyd, he put on a hell of a show, bravo to McGregor, he impressed the hell out of me, and its a pity he didn't pursue boxing instead of MMA, because as a one fight novice, he did better than Pacquiao, Guerrero, Canelo and Cotto did, imagine Conor starting out small, and working his way up the ladder, having Floyd as his fifth fight or so after some warm ups with Malignaggi, Van Heerden, Jo Jo Dan and Alexander, and worked out his stamina issues, learn to set down on his shots a little better and various other tweaks he could have made, you never know, he may very well have beaten Floyd that night.

At least Floyd ended on a high note from an entertainment perspective, and in the end Boxing won, so thank you Floyd.