Conor McGregor did better against Floyd Mayweather than anyone imagined. In fact, the Irish UFC star even seemed to win the first few rounds. There are, however, skeptics out there who believe McGregor’s early success was simply due to Mayweather’s strategy – a clever ploy to get McGregor’s timing down and simultaneously let him punch himself out. In the opinion of Holly Holm, however, who is a former champion in both the UFC and the boxing ring, this is a ridiculous suggestion.

Holm broke it down on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

“I give Conor the credit in those rounds,” she said. “I think that Mayweather is more of a slow starter. I was saying before the fight, the later it goes, the more it’s going to be in Mayweather’s favor because he does take it in the later rounds and he’s really good at keeping that. I think he was not wanting to punch himself out in the first few rounds, Mayweather, but it’s not like he wanted to let McGregor land on him. So you can’t say that Mayweather let him do that. Any fighter, especially a fighter that’s 49-0, will not just get in the ring and say I’m going to let this person hit me. Maybe he wasn’t aggressive in the first few rounds. I don’t think he ever is the aggressor in the first few rounds. However, he still moves and is so defensive that he doesn’t let people land shots on him. McGregor was landing shots on him. He was landing some uppercuts, some jabs, he was landing some straight lefts. There’s no way that was just [Mayweather] playing around with him. Like I said, no fighter – especially one that’s undefeated – gets in there with that kind of mindset.” 

What do you think of this assessment from Holly Holm?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/28/2017.