1 of 4 | Floyd Mayweather Jr. (R) lands a punch on Conor McGregor during their super-welterweight bout at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by James Atoa/UPI |
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Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Conor McGregor might have lost Saturday's fight, but he did earn the respect of many fans and fellow athletes.
The list of stars was long and powerful at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and coach Tyronn Lue, Houston Rockets star James Harden, Mike Tyson, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon, Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce, Baltimore Ravens legend Ray Lewis, basketball icon Dr. J, Stephen A. Smith were some of the sports personalities sitting ringside.
Demi Lovato, Steve Howey, Steve Harvey, Bruce Willis, Ozzy Osborner, Don Cheadle, Nick Cannon, Aisha Tyler, Cedric the Entertainer, Diddy and the Backstreet Boys also attended.
Many talked about Floyd Mayweather being the best boxer ever after moving his career record to 50-0 and eclipsing $1 billion in career earnings. Others praised Mayweather, but also gave respect to his overmatched opponent.
Manny Pacquiao, who lost to Mayweather in 2015, offered several social media responses to the fight. He deleted one of them.
Mayweather tweeted before the fight that "talking doesn't win fights."
Pacquiao responded "but running does ;) God bless on your fight tonight!" That snarky tweet was quickly deleted, but was saved forever in cyberspace with screenshots.
After the bout, Pacquiao paid homage to the 50-0 champ. "Respect to McGregor for taking a chance but congrats to Floyd on #50!" Pacquiao tweeted.
Sean Diddy Combs kept it short and sweet on Twitter, writing: "THE BEST EVER!!!!"
Wrestler Triple H wrote: "Congrats to both @TheNotoriousMMA and @FloydMayweather on doing something no man has done before...#RESPECT."
Fellow UFC featherweight Jose Aldo (26-2) laughed at McGregor on his Twitter account. Aldo lost to McGregor in 2015 in UFC 194. McGregor knocked out Aldo in that bout.
Other UFC stars took a different approach.
"@TheNotoriousMMA u are the man brother!! U fought the best of our time in his game and fought like a champ. We are all proud of you. DC @ufc," Daniel Cormier tweeted.
"Tips your caps To @TheNotoriousMMA, took TBE 10 [expletive] rounds...great show for the world of MMA @ufc #greatWork," Eddie Alvarez tweeted.
Boxing legends George Foreman and Lennox Lewis also got in on the critiques.
"Conner kept it interesting but he was outboxed and outclassed in the square ring," Lewis wrote. "Nothing to be ashamed of tho. I like him even more now!"
"All the experts who trashed the (McGregor/ Mayweather fight) should apologize. It was competitive," Foreman tweeted.
The next big boxing bout is set for September 16, when Canelo Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 knockouts) faces Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 knockouts) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
