Många har hyllat UFC-mästaren Conor McGregor för sin insats i boxningsdebuten mot obesegrade Floyd Mayweather. Något som ofta tas upp är faktumet att irländaren fick in hela 111 slag, vilket är fler än vad Manny Pacquiao och andra toppboxare som Miguel Cotto och Shane Mosley fick in i sina matcher mot Mayweather.
Men enligt Mayweather själv berodde det endast på hans eget sätt att fightas. Han kunde ha legat på utsidan och hålla sig till kontringar – men valde istället att vara mer aggressiv, menar han.
HETAST JUST NU
“That’s because I wasn’t counter-punching and boxing. 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,” sa Mayweather (via FightHype) och fortsatte:
“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.”
Lovade fansen en underhållande match
Mayweather sa redan innan superfighten att han planerade att gå in mer aggressivt för att ge fansen en underhållande match – ett löfte som han anser att han levde upp till.
“My thing is this, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. He can come out fast hands, use his range, using different angles, and after the first four or five rounds, he wasn’t the same fighter anymore…
”I told you guys I was going to go straight ahead and I know going straight ahead I was gonna take some contact, I was gonna get hit with some shots, but I wanted to give the fans and everybody around the world an exciting fight and I feel that’s what we did.”
LÄS MER: Mayweather beredd att ta emot McGregors slag – lovar fansen en underhållande match