Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor Results: Boxing Is Megafight's Big Winner

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

For the 50th time, Floyd Mayweather Jr. heard his name called, this time after swatting away Conor McGregor on Saturday night in Las Vegas after one of the most hyped fights of all time. 

Boxing, though, emerges as the biggest winner. 

At face value, Mayweather taking on a boxer without a round of significant boxing experience under his belt seemed like a recipe for disaster—no matter which way it turned out. Mayweather wins, the fight is a shrug-worthy affair. He loses to an opponent so green, it casts a shadow of skepticism on the sport itself. 

Other than a brief Showtime hiccup before walkouts, though, Mayweather-McGregor went off in the best possible way. 

Even the result being predictable doesn't detract from the value of the fight for boxing as a whole. 

This was a typical Mayweather fight. He felt McGregor out for the first few rounds, sending social media into an uproar. Technically speaking, he "lost" the first two rounds while the energetic McGregor spammed the attack. 

Based on numbers from CompuBox, via ESPN.com's Arash Markazi, McGregor took a few rounds before falling off significantly over the fight's second half: 

Again, predictable. But few moments in sports as a whole can recreate the feeling of excitement over those first few rounds, the "Is this really happening or possible?" questions capable of making fans around the world feel like the $100 pay-per-view was money well spent. 

And it was. Mayweather did what he does, connecting on almost 60 percent of his 152 power punches. His opponent, like Manny Pacquiao and many before him, threw more trying to hit the elusive legend and missed more in the process, hitting on 25 percent of his more than 330. 

"Our game plan was to take our time, go to him, let him shoot his shots early and then take him out down the stretch," Mayweather said, according to ESPN.com's Dan Rafael. "We know in MMA he fights for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, he started to slow down. I guaranteed to everybody that this wouldn't go the distance."

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

It's not often sporting events live up to the hype. But after all the trash talk and pre-fight build, McGregor and Mayweather both come out of the bout with pristine legacies and having furthered the sport at a time it could have taken another hit. 

Few who watched the bout would throw criticism McGregor's way after going 10 rounds with a 49-0 modern legend firmly in the conversation for best of all time. Even fewer would throw some at Mayweather for fighting his fight, gassing an opponent while dissecting his plan, then going on an onslaught so brutal the referee had to stop a guy who looked out on his feet from taking even more damage. 

After the stoppage, Mayweather even copped to owing fans one after the borderline silly fight with Pacquiao. 

"I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see," Mayweather said, per Rafael. "I owed them for the Pacquiao fight. I had to come straight ahead and give the fans a show. That's what I gave them. He's a lot better than I thought he'd be. He's a tough competitor, but I was the better man tonight."

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

Even if that wasn't Mayweather's goal or mindset when making the fight initially, a bout against McGregor might have been the only way to recoup the public's trust in boxing after the Pacquiao debacle.

Boxing needed Mayweather-McGregor to succeed in the expectations department. The financial side of things was never in question. But burning fans again would have done irreparable damage—and as an aside, casual fans, MMA or otherwise, who hadn't crossed over have now seen how exciting the sport of boxing can be. 

What started as a seemingly money-grabbing affair above all else delivered in a way capable of producing a trickle-down effect on the rest of boxing as it fights to fit into the mindshare of the modern sports fan.

In this way, the fight does more than prop up each man's legacy by meeting expectations; it marks a potential rehabbing of sorts for the sport as a whole. Mayweather and McGregor both might be done with boxing, but the rest of the sport can now take the ball and run with it if done properly like Saturday's event.