The Money Fight

Normally, when I feel the urge to blog about sports, it's about Professional Wrestling.  But how could I ignore my assessment of what I saw this past Saturday night.  Some call it a sham, some call it the biggest fight of all time.  Whatever it was, it was entertaining.  So let's get to it.

The Money Fight

It's been months since the dream boxing match between Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. and "The Notorious" Conor McGregor was made official. We've seen the all the hype and all the talking (and talking and talking and talking. Wash the hype tour really necessary?). Now, it's finally over. What went down?

Going into the fight, most assumed Mayweather would win. After all, this was a boxing match and he was the boxer. However, many of the faithful held out hope for McGregor, as he was younger, stronger and had a reach advantage. I personally had no preference, I honestly don't care for either fighter but respect their skill.

The spectacle began with some pretty crazy entrances. When the bell rang, there wasn't much of a slow feeling out process. McGregor was the aggressor and immediately started landing some solid shots.

The crowd was in an absolute frenzy. McGregor was on the attack and it seemed all Mayweather could do was play defense. McGregor clearly won the first three rounds. This wasn't how many thought the fight would go, though many hoped it would.  However it may have also been part of Mayweather's strategy, given that he had never fought someone like McGregor before.

The announcers said Mayweather seemed like a shadow of his former self. He wasn't nearly as active and wasn't throwing many punches. There were times McGregor seemed like he might be disqualified for throwing hammer fists, which Mayweather baited him into doing. Was this his master plan? Provoke a DQ? However, we'd all soon learn he had an entirely different plan in mind.

Starting in the fourth round, Mayweather started fighting back. McGregor was still landing hits, but Mayweather was landing his own as well. He was the winner of the fourth round, and suddenly the fight shifted.

There's one very important difference between boxing and MMA that Mayweather chose to exploit. In his career, Conor's longest fights were five, five-minute rounds, totaling 25 minutes. Meanwhile, boxing consists of 12, three-minute rounds, totaling 36 minutes. "Money" banked on having more cardio than McGregor.

After the flurry of the first three rounds, McGregor had punched himself out and was starting to breath heavily. Mayweather gave him the beginning of the match to secure the win later on. He defended himself brilliantly from the barrage and began his own assault when McGregor started to tire. Long time boxing fans might recognize this as the infamous "Rope-A-Dope" strategy made famous by Muhammad Ali.

The longer the fight went on, the worse it got for the notorious one. He was having a hard time keeping his hands up and Mayweather was landing heavy, heavy shots. McGregor tried hugging him in defense to catch his breath, but it was only a temporary solution that wouldn't last much longer.

Finally, the fight came to a conclusion. The referee stepped in between the competitors and ended the bout at one minute and five seconds into the tenth round. The official decision is that Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Conor McGregor via technical knockout.

Many felt that the stoppage was premature. After all, McGregor was still on his feet. However, his guard was completely down and Mayweather was teeing off on him. It could have gotten ugly very quickly. Seeing that he wasn't intelligently defending himself, the ref made the right decision, despite protests from McGregor or the fans. Conor himself admitted in a post-fight interview that even though he wished he could have finished the round, he felt the referee made the right call.

For winning, Mayweather was awarded the Money Belt. Just another championship in his already ludicrous collection. As if his record of 50-0 and the $300 million dollar purse wasn't enough.

Phenomenal One vs The Showstopper

So last night I'm getting ready to watch WWE Payback and on the network they are showing an episode of "Dinner for 3".  The episode airing was with AJ Styles, Kevin Nash, and Shawn Michaels. During the course of the dinner, the topic of a potential dream match between AJ and Shawn comes up and there was even a mock up promo poster shown.

Shawn brought up some very valid points on why it would be very difficult to make the match happen.  To name a few, his outstanding last match with Undertaker no longer being his last match if he comes back, and also the problem with who would win between him or AJ and why would it benefit either character?

It got me thinking and I believe I have come up with a way that could make both of them look good.  Now bear with me because we're stepping into the realm of professional wrestling storytelling here.

Step 1- Shawn has been well documented as a desk analyst on several pay per views over the last few years, giving his inside opinion on potential match outcomes and the growth of several superstars.  It is not out of the question that he could be at one of these events and make some very public critical comments on one of AJ's performances.
Now for this to work, AJ would have to already be walking the line of being a heel at the start of this.  After hearing Shawn's comments, AJ would have a rebuttal during his next appearance on Smackdown.  Telling Shawn to mind his own business and that his time is over, and how AJ is better than Shawn ever was, you get the idea.

Step 2- Shawn would try to be the bigger man and let AJ's comments slide.  But this would only increase AJ's desire to prove himself better than Shawn in the ring.  You could literally go on a campaign for several weeks here with AJ trying to draw Shawn into a fight.

Step 3- AJ finally goes over the line and pushes Shawn's buttons.  You could use whatever you want here, verbally going after Shawn's close friends or family.  Maybe even a backstage assault on a visiting member of the clique like Kevin Nash.  Whatever it takes to finally make Shawn jump the railing and get physical.

Step 4- The buildup ends at Wrestlemania where the two finally have their match.  It's a spectacular display of air and ground attacks that we have grown to expect from both of these class A players. But eventually Shawn gets the win and pins AJ clean.

Step 5-  Now this is where everything gets wrapped up.  Shawn gets a final Wrestlemania win, cementing his legacy as "Mr. Wrestlemania".  But AJ comes out of the match better than he went in, having a newfound respect for Shawn, he ends his crusade to prove his superiority.  Endearing himself to Shawn's fans and growing his own popularity, and also doing the opposite of when Chris Jericho lost to Shawn and then attacked him after the match.  They both come full circle, giving the fans their dream match, and helping both their characters look good in the end.

Well this is just an idea.  But I think it could work and we've certainly seen worse ideas that put butts in seats and in the end, isn't that what it's about?  I'd love to hear your thoughts or opinions.