Boxing - Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Conor McGregor - Las Vegas, USA - August 26, 2017 Floyd Mayweather Jr. looks up at the big screen after winning the fight REUTERS/Steve Marcus

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A ruthless Floyd Mayweather scored a 10th round technical knockout over mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor on Saturday, cementing his legacy as one of boxing's all-time greats. … I thought I was close.”

McGregor’s loud insistence that he was poised to become the new “face of boxing” now seems a little foolish, although big nights and sizeable paychecks await him on his return to the UFC. McGregor, making his professional boxing debut, had boasted he would knock out the 40-year-old American early but his lack of ring savvy betrayed him as Mayweather improved to 50-0 to surpass heavyweight great Rocky Marciano's 49-0 record for most wins without a loss or draw. I wanted to show that I could box.”

Cunningham was trying to make Tabiti fight in the 10th, but Tabiti was content to stay away, perhaps knowing Cunningham could only win by knockout by that time. McGregor, a mixed martial arts champion who was making his professional boxing debut, failed to pull off what would have been the greatest upset in combat sports history but made the fight much more compelling than most experts had predicted. Many expected Mayweather to beat McGregor, with the biggest question being whether the fight would last the full 12 rounds. Mayweather battered McGregor around the ring in the later rounds, finally stopping him at 1:05 of the 10th round Saturday night with a flurry of punches that forced referee Robert Byrd to stop the fight. But in the end it was Mayweather, a five-division world champion and the greatest fighter of his era, whose class shined through after a bit of a slow start, which he said was part of his game plan. More: A-list celebrities flock to see Mayweather vs. McGregor

“I thought it was close, and I though the stoppage was a little early," McGregor said after the fight. I was just a little fatigued.”

Mayweather was fighting for the first time since beating Andre Berto in 2015 and feared in the lead-up to the contest if his time away would slow him down. (Mayweather) was a lot more composed, especially in the later parts of the fight.”

When asked if he would box again, McGregor said, “I don’t know. “I guess the camera didn’t show the right clip of me catching him,” he said.
In boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats mixed martial artist Conor McGregor in the 10th round by technical knockout to improve to 50–0, breaking Rocky Marciano's 61-year-old record.