Floyd Mayweather admits to carrying Conor McGregor?
While UFC Lightweight champion Conor McGregor has been taking shots at fellow MMA fighter Max, “Blessed” Holloway, the only man to KO McGregor, has been sounding off on social media as well.
Fight Hype saved video of Floyd calling Oscar De La Hoya a “hypocrite” and saying he “carried” McGregor to the tenth round of their August boxing bout to “make it look good.”
“Everybody tried to protest the Mayweather-McGregor fight, right? But I’m gonna tell y’all the truth, I’m gonna tell y’all the truth. You know I carried McGregor. You know I made it look good for y’all.”
His words succinctly addresses the two major criticisms leveled at Floyd for the McGregor fight. From the boxing fans came cries that Mayweather should not even deign to step in the ring with Conor, that he would humiliate boxing by competing against an MMA fighter in his boxing debut. Loudest among these voices was Oscar De La Hoya, who after the fight announced that he had been “secretly training” and would come out of retirement to box Conor.
From the MMA side, fans responded to the fight noting that even though McGregor got stopped by Floyd, he actually landed more punches against Mayweather than many other skilled opponents, including future Hall of Fame boxers Miguel Cotto, Manny Pacquiao, and Shane Mosley.
To this, Floyd responds that it was all by design, and that he let Conor into the tenth round to put on a good show.
The truth here is probably, as it often is, somewhere in the middle. Although Conor did land a significant number of punches against Floyd, the number does not suggest that Conor has elite boxing skill, or that he would beat boxers who landed less.
And to Conor’s credit, the audio from Floyd’s corner during the fight, released by ShowTime, would indicated that he did not “carry” Conor into the later rounds – although he was waiting for him to tire before attacking.
The punch count is likely a product of Floyd’s change in style for the fight. He uncharacteristically marched Conor down. This could be due to Floyd’s age making his usual evasions too risky, but probably Floyd knew that tiring Conor out was the best way to achieve the exciting finish that he and the fans so desired.
In any case, McGregor is sure to respond, and will hopefully do better on social media than he did in the ring.
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