Floyd Mayweather Jr heads into Saturday’s fight with Conor McGregor with a 49-0 record ahead of what many expects to be his final bout.
The 40 year old American has a 49-0 record having knocked out 26 of his opponents over a 21-year career.
Conor McGregor is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter who will be making his professional boxing debut. Odds on the Mayweather v McGregor fight show that Mayweather is the clear favourite and he’s even odds on to score a knockout victory.
Here are those 36 boxers that Floyd Mayweather knocked out:
Professional Debut
In his first fight as a pro after winning Bronze at the 1996 Olympics, Floyd Mayweather won his first professional bout with a TKO versus Mexican boxer Roberto Apodaca after 37 seconds of the second round. This bout took place at the Texas Station in Las Vegas, Nevada on 11th October, 1996.
5 in a Row
Mayweather beat Reggie Sanders by unanimous decision in a four round bout in what was only his second-ever professional fight. After that he went on a five-match streak throughout 1997 where he won each fight by TKO, beating Jerry Cooper, Edgar Ayala, Kino Rodriguez, Bobby Giepert and Tony Duran – all Americans.
1997-98
Floyd Mayweather was climbing the rankings with knockout after knockout throughout 1997 and into 1998. After a unanimous decision victory over Larry O’Shields took his record to 8-0 in June 1997, he went on a streak of seven matches that were either won by TKO or KO. First he scored TKO victories over Mexican Jesús Chávez and American Louie Leija. On 14th October 1997, Mayweather scored his first KO victory, knocking out Mexico’s Felipe Garcia.
His final fight of 1997 was a TKO win over Angelo Nuñez before starting 1998 with the same result against Puerto Rican Hector Arroyo. Sam Girard became the second KO victim of Mayweather, on 28th February, 1998. Then Miguel Melo was defeated by TKO the following month.
In his first title shot, for the WBC and lineal super featherweight titles on 3rd October 1998, his first 12-round fight, Floyd Mayweather beat Genaro Hernández as his opponent’s coaches threw the towel in at the end of round 8.
Title Defences
Mayweather’s first title defence was a TKO victory over Angel Manfredy late in the second round. Manfredy had won 23 of his last 24 fights with one No Contest heading into the bout.
Justin Juuko of Uganda was knocked out in Floyd Mayweather’s third title defence in 1999 before back-to-back TKOs versus Emanuel Augustus and Diego Corrales in October, 2000 and January, 2001 respectively took the champion to a record of 25-0.
It wasn’t until fighting Philip N’dou from South Africa in his 31st fight that the Michigan native scored his next TKO victory, in November, 2003. Henry Bruseles and Sharmba Mitchell became the next TKO victims, at either end of 2005. Mayweather was now 35-0 with 24 knockout victories.
Ricky Hatton
The MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada hosted the massive showdown between two undefeated boxers on 8th December, 2007. By this time Floyd Mayweather was 38-0 whilst Great Britain’s Ricky Hatton was 43-0.
This contest had been hyped for more than four months, built up as the biggest welterweight fight since 1999 between Oscar De La Hoya and Tito Trinidad.
Ricky Hatton made a good start to the fight, but a controversial point deduction in round six seemed to turn the momentum in the American’s favour. Hatton’s team threw the towel in in round 10 after Hatton had been knocked down for a second time in the same round.
Victor Ortiz
Beating Hatton took Mayweather to 39-0 and has been his penultimate knockout victory to date. His last one, was in bout number 42, and a controversial one at that.
Mayweather used his speed and skills to tag Ortiz repeatedly before being the recipient of a headbutt in the fourth round.
The referee motioned the fighters back to resume the fight and both fighters touched gloves. Ortiz even gave Mayweather a hug. At that moment, the referee was not looking at the fighters and as Ortiz let go, Mayweather took advantage of Ortiz having his hands by his side and unloaded a left hook to wobble Ortiz. Ortiz looked at the referee before Mayweather connected with a straight right to Ortiz’s face, knocking him to the canvas. He was unable to beat the count.
Will Floyd Mayweather or Conor McGregor score a knockout victory this weekend? To get you even more pumped for the fight, Betfair have put together an infographic of some of the biggest and most memorable knockouts:
