On August 26, 2017, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr., who had previously retired, for the second time, in 2015, came out of retirement to face UFC lightweight champion Conor ‘Notorious’ McGregor in a pay-per-view contest at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas. Known as ‘The Money Fight’, it was, in fact, one of the richest bouts in boxing history, with minimum earnings of $100 million for Mayweather and $30 million for McGregor.

Scheduled for twelve rounds, at the light-middleweight, 154lb, limit, the bout represented a first professional boxing match for McGregor, whereas Mayweather was seeking to extend his perfect career to 50 fights unbeaten. McGregor, 29, started brightly, connecting with a crisp uppercut in the opening round but, after a slow start, Mayweather started to gain the upper hand over his visibly tiring opponent from the fourth round onwards.

In the sixth and seventh rounds, Mayweather landed a series of solid head shots that pushed his opponent backwards and, as McGregor ran out of steam, continued to land crisp, clean punches. In round nine, Mayweather began stalking an exhausted McGregor around the ring and, in round ten, landed several telling right hands before trapping him, all but defenceless, against the ropes. With McGregor having nothing left to offer, and well behind on the ringside scorecards, referee Robert Byrd had little choice but to stop the contest.

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On November 13, 1992, at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield fought Riddick ‘Big Daddy’ Bowe in the first of what would become a trilogy of not-to-be-forgotten bouts between the pair. Holyfield, 30, came into the fight as undisputed world heavyweight champion – having won the WBC, WBA and IBF titles with a third-round knockout of James ‘Buster’ Douglas at The Mirage, Las Vegas two years earlier – and unbeaten in all 28 professional matches. Bowe, 25, was similarly unbeaten, boasting 27 knockouts in his 31-fight professional career, but stood 3″ taller and weighed in 30lb heavier than Holyfield.

Unsurprisingly, granted his height, weight and reach advantage, Bowe landed the harder and more significant punches throughout the first nine rounds. Nevertheless, despite being outgunned, Holyfield refused to yield kept coming forward. Early in the tenth round – later hailed as ‘The Round of the Year’ by ‘The Ring’ – Bowe hurt his opponent with a right uppercut and, sensing blood, unleashed a flurry of punches which, at one point, Holyfield seemed unlikely to survive. Survive he did, though, and finished the round strongly.

In the eleventh round, Bowe hurt Holyfield again, with a left hook, and followed up with powerful right hand that knocked the champion off his feet. Holyfield survived that round, too, but by that stage the result had gone beyond recall; Bowe used his jab to good effect for the remainder of the contest and won, comfortably, by unanimous decision, 115-112, 117-110, 117-110.

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