Floyd Mayweather explains why Conor McGregor landed more than other opponents

Conor McGregor didn’t beat Floyd Mayweather. Instead, he succumbed to a storm of 10th-round punches dealt by the undefeated boxing legend.

That said, McGregor did far better than many fans and pundits expected, arguably winning the fist few rounds of the fight, and surprisingly, out-landing many of Mayweather’s previous opponents – stars like Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley, and Miguel Cotto.

According to Mayweather, however, there’s an easy explanation for the volume with which McGregor was able to land.

When Mayweather fought boxers like Pacquiao, Mosley and Cotto, he was far more defensive than he was against McGregor. Against McGregor, he favored an atypically aggressive approach, pressing forward in attempt to pick up a stoppage in his final boxing match.

Mayweather explained in some recently released footage from FightHype.com (via MMAFighting.com).

“[It’s] because I wasn’t counter-punching and boxing,” Mayweather said. “The reason why he probably landed a higher percentage or landed more shots than those guys was because I was coming straight ahead, I was barely moving, knocking his shots down a little bit and just breaking him down. That was the game plan, let him shoot everything. I know he was gonna shoot shots from awkward positions but the game plan was to dig into the body with good shots, hit him with left hooks, hit him with straight right hands and keep walking towards him, keep pressing him and pushing him back.

“I could have just stayed on the outside, out-boxed him and counter-punched him, and probably still stop him down the stretch but that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to press and push him.”

With his win over Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather improved to a ridiculous 50-0. Having reached this milestone, the boxing legend elected to hang up the gloves – this time, for good.

What did you think of Conor McGregor’s performance against Floyd Mayweather?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 9/11/2017.