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.