MMA Champion Conor McGregor could not take home a victory yesterday, but his fans in Bahrain were thrilled to see his breathtaking performance against boxer Floyd Mayweather.
The historic match was one of the most anticipated in boxing history.
The match delivered the promise, giving fans exactly what they were expecting.
MMA is hugely popular in Bahrain, growing exceptionally fast, partly thanks to the initiatives of The Supreme Council for Youth and Sports First Deputy Chairman, Bahrain Athletic Federation President and KHK MMA Organisation Founder HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa’s initiatives.
MMA student Tanvir Shaikh said that he is not surprised by the result.
“It went exactly how I expected it to. I knew that only McGregor would win if he could finish the match within the first few rounds because if Mayweather stretches the fight he would have the upper hand because of his vast experience in boxing,” Tanvir said.
“Conor transitioned from MMA to boxing and it’s not easy to take home a win in the very first match as the rules are different from MMA,” Tanvir said.
“The duration of the match is also different which means the things like stamina and strategy comes into play. Despite all of this, Conor put in a great performance and the statistics speak for itself,” Tanvir said.
“He outperformed Manny Pacquiao’s statistics against Mayweather. I am happy with the performance of McGregor, it was an interesting and unique match,” he said.
“I think if he had more time to prepare and practice boxing, he would have fared better,” Tanvir said.
“We were not expecting McGregor to win, he was the underdog in this fight because of his inexperience in boxing. But he did what we expected him to by giving it his all, “ said Ishaq Ahmed.
Member of the KHK MMA Ametuer team Hussain Mahdi said that despite being an MMA fighter himself he was rooting for Mayweather to win.
“Mayweather has so much experience and is a champion in the sport of boxing so he was expected to win. Regardless of this, McGregor put on a great show. He stepped up and took a chance, most people cannot do this and this is something I respect about him,” he said.
Another MMA fan Hussain Ali said that McGregor surpassed expectations by lasting ten rounds.
“It was a thrilling match, McGregor did not disappoint his fans, he made them proud by enduring that long in his debut match against such a strong opponent,” he said.
