It’s nearly two weeks since Floyd Mayweather defeated Conor McGregor via technical knockout in the 10th round of their lucrative boxing fight in Las Vegas, yet it remains the fight everyone is talking about.Legendary heavyweight George Foreman sparked controversy this week when he suggested that Mayweather was saved by referee Richard Byrd after receiving a “vicious body bunch”.“The referee protected Mayweather in one of the last rounds,” Foreman said on the Obviously Fight Talk podcast.“(Conor) hurt him. He had him hurt, and was going for the finish, and the referee stepped in for no reason at all and stopped it. It was a vicious body punch.”McGregor landed 111 of the 430 punches he threw against Mayweather, more than Manny Pacquiao did when he lost to the American in 2015, but, Mayweather rarely appeared in too much trouble.The 40-year-old’s expertise slowly began to show and it was no surprise when Byrd stopped the fight following a flurry of shots from Mayweather in the 10th round.
Why David Haye was surprised
It was a masterful showing from ‘Money’, but David Haye has expressed his surprise that the 50-0 star lost a round to McGregor.
The three judges each gave the first round to the Irishman but Haye believes he outboxed Mayweather in the opening three rounds.
“I wasn’t anticipating Mayweather to lose any rounds let alone losing three in a row,” Haye told World Boxing News. “I had the fourth round close as well with the first three to McGregor and the fourth could have went either way so I gave it a draw and the rest went to Mayweather.
“But the fact he put himself in a position in round seven or eight where the fight was even made me think we had a real good fight on our hands and I enjoyed whilst it lasted, though the writing was on the wall.
“He (McGregor) started gassing and Floyd controlled every aspect of the fight.”
Official scorecards
McGregor has received many plaudits for his performance against a master of his craft, and Haye believes the Notorious “coated himself in glory” on August 26.
“It was an entertaining fight whilst it lasted,” the British heavyweight added. “Conor McGregor coated himself in glory - he did what many people didn’t think he could by making it competitive and whether that would be him being so great at boxing or whether Mayweather let him do it, he did it.
“He landed more shots than pretty much anyone else I had seen so he should take a lot of confidence.”
