OK, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, enough now. It wasn’t a sham or a total farce, it wasn’t an embarrassment to boxing or the worst thing to befall combat sports. But still, please, enough now.
No rematch, no do-over, no more circuit of coarse promotion and ballyhoo. Thank you, you gave us something to talk about during these quiet days of summer swelter and filled a hole in the sporting calendar. In return, we forked over our money and you will pocket nine figures to spend on whatever your heart chooses.
Mayweather-McGregor was always going to be more like a soap opera than a sporting event, months of anticipation building up to a nerve-jangling crescendo. It wasn’t the greatest battle in history, but it was interesting enough, and as season finales go, it had its moments.
It will give us enough to talk about around the water cooler on Monday morning, and, just like the big network blockbusters, that will be it, on to something else.
It didn’t answer any significant questions about the merits of boxing compared to mixed martial arts, or indeed Mayweather compared to McGregor.
Mayweather racked up his 50th fight win as a pro, very convincingly as it turned out, after a few early flurries of excitement from the Irishman. He is now, at age 40, and always will be, a vastly superior boxer to McGregor, who would be similarly advanced if the fight took place inside an octagon.
The real question that was answered was about us, the public, the media, and what gets us riled up. Beyond any doubt it is the show of sports rather than the sports themselves that fit that criteria, that we like talking about and listening to threats of sporting violence and vicious verbal putdowns than we do watching punches thrown and knockdowns recorded.
That doesn’t go for everyone, of course, and there will always be a hardcore fan for whom the delicate intricacies of fight game tactics matter above all.
But that wasn’t the audience that Mayweather or McGregor, master promoters both, targeted here, nor was it the one it got. It got the broadest and most varied television viewership of all, which will contribute to an extraordinary number of pay-per-view buys that will further enrich both.
Mayweather has sold fights better than anyone, ever, and even if the product has rarely produced the promised thrills it hasn’t stopped the masses from coming back. In terms of entertainment this one came closer than most to what the hype machine prepared us for.
Which is why it is a good time for him to walk away from the sport, as he promises now. And a good time to us to latch onto the next hot button topic.
