Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather was uncharacteristically coy when quizzed on Ronda Rousey’s shocking loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193, refusing the opportunity to criticise the MMA star.
“Oh, I don't know. I don't speak on nobody's situation,” Mayweather said at the Staples Center during the Los Angeles Lakers-Detroit Pistons game on Sunday when asked about Rousey’s defeat, per David Mayo of MLive.com.
“Just in boxing period, contact sports period, you win some, you lose some. I don't know about this fight, I just know that you win some and you lose some. It basically comes with the territory,” Mayweather added.
The two combat sports stars have been at loggerheads since Mayweather was asked about Rousey in 2014 and said, "I don't know who he is,” per Mayo.
So after plenty of subsequent words from both sides, it comes as a surprise that when discussing her loss to Holm in Melbourne, Australia, the undefeated boxer decided not to go in two-footed.
Mayweather claims to be retired from boxing after beating Andre Berto earlier this year, leaving him with a 49-0 professional record.
Here’s a reminder of Holm's devastating knockout at the Etihad Stadium, per BT Sport UFC:
Rousey had previously insisted in a Reddit question and answer session (warning: expletive language) she would be capable of beating Mayweather in a ruleless fight. However, it’s not been lost on many that against a quality boxer—Holm is a former world champion in the sweet science—Rousey struggled badly.
Indeed, former NFL star Desmond Howard thinks it’s time for talk of any Rousey-Mayweather showdown to be shelved for good in the wake of this result, expressing the belief that Rousey, because she lost to Holm, couldn't contend with a male boxer:
The opportunity was certainly there for Money to put the boot in further on Rousey, especially after previous back-and-forth barbs between the pair. Not only did the UFC star lose to a fighter with a strong boxing background, but she’s now got a blemish on her record too, something Mayweather doesn't have.
Nevertheless, it seems as though Mayweather, while pretty respectful with these comments, has sought to get his shots in elsewhere, as revealed by his close friend and rapper 50 Cent on Instagram in the wake of Rousey’s defeat:
Talk of any kind of fight between Mayweather and Rousey was likely always going to be hypothetical and nothing more.
Even so, while the former champion struggled against a boxing-based opponent on this occasion, if there’s a rematch, it’d be peculiar to see Rousey employ similarly upright tactics instead of relying on her judo background.
BT Sport’s Gareth A Davies thinks that should the pair go head-to-head again, it’d make for an especially fascinating contest:
Mayweather is usually not shy of criticising those who have been critical of him, so it’d be no surprise to see him have a much more cynical say further down the line. Perhaps, with emotions still raw in the aftermath of the bout, he decided it was best not to whip up more animosity between the pair at this time.
Maybe the manner in which Rousey—previously considered by many to be unbeatable in the Octagon—was defeated will make Money think carefully about a return to the ring.
As was evident in Melbourne, all it takes is one bad night for an unbeaten record to be tarnished; you suspect Mayweather will have looked back on his own career even more contented as a result.
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