Max Kellerman, who works for HBO Sports and ESPN, believes five division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (50-0, 27 KOs) should never even consider idea of returning to the ring.
This past Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Mayweather secured a TKO victory in the tenth round over UFC superstar Conor McGregor, who was ** his professional debut as a boxer.
Mayweather, 40 years old, was coming back from a two year retirement. He walked away from the sport in September 2015. The contest took place at the junior middleweight limit of 154-pounds, with 8-ounce gloves being used.
McGregor very well in the fight, for a man taking part in his first pro boxing match against one of the best pure boxers in the history of the game.
Many felt that he won the first three rounds and eventually faded down the stretch before being stopped in the tenth round. Before he was stopped McGregor was able to land more clean punches than anyone had expected and he was able to make Mayweather miss punches as well. Mayweather's movement was non-existent in the fight and he was mostly flat-footed for the entire contest.
In the weeks leading up to the fight, Mayweather stated several times that he lost a few steps and felt like he was no longer the same fighter that he once was - and even said he wasn't the same fighter from two years ago.
Many felt it was Mayweather's way of selling the pay-per-view - but Kellerman agrees with the former pound-for-pound king.
Based on last Saturday's performance, Kellerman felt Mayweather was certainly looking his age and would have been battered by some of the younger, up and coming fighters like IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence and unified junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
"What we saw was Conor McGregor’s exceptional quality as a fighter on the one hand and Floyd Mayweather’s age secondarily. I don’t want to take anything away from Conor - but also Floyd at the age of 40 has to stop fighting," Kellerman said.
"There are a lot of young fighters, several at least, who would have knocked Floyd out on Saturday night. I know he wouldn’t have fought them the exact same way but that Floyd doesn’t go the distance with Terence Crawford, maybe not with Errol Spence. There are a bunch of young guys who would have beaten him up that night. That’s enough, he’s retiring at the perfect time.
“So, the big take away from me is, that was the best version of the fight it could have been. I was wrong to say Conor wouldn’t land a punch – he landed several actual punches cleanly. He won a few rounds early when Floyd hadn’t started fighting yet, which is amazing to me. But ultimately he didn’t really have a chance to win the fight and Floyd won in the way he did partly because he is an older, flat-footed fighter now.”
2023-10-19 09:49:54
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