?My ideal last dance partner,? Floyd Mayweather said of Conor McGregor, which seemed as apt a label as any.
For as a showpiece his 10-round victory owed more to Dancing with the Stars, the US show in which he jived to Ray Charles in 2005, than with anything we might reasonably call elite sport.
McGregor was cussedness personified, lasting far longer than any of his detractors thought he could. But ultimately a contest between a boxing rookie and the finest pound-for-pound fighter of his generation dissolved into such an unedifying mismatch that Mayweather could even afford a wink at the cameras.
Not that McGregor should worry unduly. He heads off for his holiday in Ibiza ?77 million richer and with his profile burnished by mainstream recognition, even if this was less a showcase for his boxing prowess than his defiant resolve to beat the odds.
