Floyd Mayweather Jr. beat Conor McGregor on the 26th of August. No one can claim to have been surprised by the outcome. The fight proceeded pretty much as everyone predicted. That doesn’t mean the match was any less exciting.
People love occurrences of this sort. And the online boxing odds for major events like this are usually lucrative. But while McGregor is ready to move on to bigger things, people, boxing fans, in particular, are not ready to let Floyd advance past his match with the UFC champion.
Floyd went into the fight with McGregor knowing full well that his victory was guaranteed and that he would surpass Rocky Marciano’s revered 49-0 record. And one assumes that Floyd Mayweather is flying high right now, not only because of his massive payout but also because he can officially claim the 50-0 boxing record, surpassing Marciano.
However, Marciano’s son doesn’t believe that Floyd has earned the 50-0 record. In fact, Rocky Marciano Jr. wants Floyd to add an asterisk to his 50-0 record because the fight with McGregor was largely an exhibition match against an amateur making his boxing debut in the ring.
Rocky contends that the differences between fighting in the UFC Octagon and the boxing ring are so massive that McGregor had too complex a learning curve to overcome. In that regard, Rocky Jr. appreciates the legend Floyd has garnered over the last two decades and he agrees that he deserves every ounce of respect he enjoys today; however, Rocky thinks it is foolishness for Floyd to count his victory against McGregor.
Any notable boxing analyst saw the outcome of the fight before it even happened. As expected, McGregor came in strong and Floyd took it slow, taking the time to see what his opponent could do.
And as the rounds progressed, McGregor predictably got slower as fatigue set in, giving Floyd the opening to end things in the tenth round. Rocky Marciano Jr. knows that he cannot stop people from concluding that the fight against McGregor counts in Floyd’s attempts to break his father’s record.
But he has expressed disappointment over the fact that people would allow Floyd to skate by with such an easy victory. Rocky Jr. would be happy to see Floyd Mayweather break his father’s record by going against an elite boxer of his weight class that can truly challenge him.
No one can take away Floyd’s 50th win. But Rocky wants people to question how the champion got that 50th win. Marciano’s career spanned the 40s and 50s during which he recorded 43 knockouts and garnered his 40-0 record. Marciano eventually left the sport at the age of 32, eventually passing away in a plane crash.
Marciano had considered making a return to the boxing ring but he never got the chance. Like Mayweather, it was money that got Marciano thinking about leaving his retirement. Sources say that he was offered a pretty lucrative deal to make a comeback.
Marciano hesitated because he wasn’t sure whether or not he was willing to compromise his legacy. Most likely, he didn’t want to risk tarnishing his 49-0 record, especially when he was no longer operating at peak physical condition.
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