The greatest trick Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather ever pulled was not so bad

Who really lost out there?

You could have scripted the reaction of the impossible-to-please curmudgeons - the kind of people who complain about a meal after they've eaten every morsel.

"They've swindled fans out of money!" "It's a disgrace to boxing!" "It's not even sport!"

Lads, calm down. It was a bit of fucking fun. There is absolutely no need to feel sorry for the grown-up, completely compos mentis fans who paid money to watch Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather because they're not feeling sorry for themselves. Trust me, I asked a lot of them tonight. https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/901676607873708032 Not one fan I spoke to in the wake of Mayweather's 10th round shutdown of 'The Notorious' regretted spending money on travelling to Las Vegas for the fight or the entrance fee for the many viewing parties on the strip or the admittedly outrageous ticket prices to actually get inside the T-Mobile Arena. Even those who bet money on the Irishman are not all that beaten up about their losings because McGregor didn't force anyone to put money on him. He was genuinely of the belief that he was going to knock his opponent unconscious. And if he felt it, why shouldn't he publicly announce his prediction? His responsibilities do not include behaving conservatively so as not to confuse an impressionable fanbase and protect them from betting on him. https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/901680043059027969 Really, nobody is feeling sorry for themselves as the wee hours of Sunday morning approach. McGregor's fans are hardcore and they will continue to be so. The overriding sentiment among the green throng who emptied into casinos after the final bell was one of overwhelming pride as a national hero who dared to dream gave an admirable account of himself in one of the most daunting tasks ever undertaken by a sportsperson. Novices in sports that are not of the combat variety would be reluctant to dive in at the deep end and test their unproven mettle against the world's best mostly out of a fear of embarrassment. But imagine the balls it takes to dismiss the dangers of making a fool of oneself and the potential of getting your face pummelled by a boxing great. Because that's the risk that Conor McGregor took. https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/901698688736788480 Ambition and confidence in one's ability should be applauded, not mocked, because those are two of the cornerstone traits of every single sporting legend. Criticising a sportsperson for reaching for the absolute summit goes against the very bedrock of what sport is. If Saturday night had ended in a brutal first round knockout or was a one-sided whitewash then, sure, fans would have every right to feel slightly aggrieved but that's not what happened. They got a fight. Against the expectations of some of boxing's most respected pundits, McGregor took some rounds against a hall-of-famer. The press box couldn't believe that two of the three judges awarded only one round to the UFC star but for an 0-0 competitor to actually enjoy any success whatsoever against a veteran of over 20 years, well that's something pretty incredible. https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/901715695393755136 It was competitive insofar as Mayweather was made to work harder than he anticipated and those draped in tricolours loved every second of it. To those who claim that both men were simply putting on an act of disliking each other in the build-up in order to ramp up interest, I would ask: "Is this your first experience of boxing?" Trash talk is part and parcel of the fight game and if you were naive enough to believe that, out of the hundreds of high-profile fights which included bad blood, McGregor vs. Mayweather was the only real deal then I don't know what to tell you. And the fact that both men were handsomely rewarded for their evening of work did not make it unscrupulous. Mayweather put his hard-earned undefeated professional record on the line, as well as his legacy, while McGregor emptied all his efforts into one of the most intensive fight camps imaginable as he tasked himself with figuring out how to break down the impenetrable defence of his opponent under boxing rules. We shouldn't begrudge them their earnings just based on the outcome of the sporting contest because, at the end of the day, they delivered what they told us they would. Would it have made the result easier to swallow if they'd carried their war of words into the post-fight press conference? No! They sold a fight brilliantly and then they gave it their all in the ring. What more can we ask for? https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/901729500592996352 And for those purists who claim that the fight between Mayweather and McGregor proved itself to be a disgrace to boxing, well perhaps you should take a closer look at your sport because there are a lot more egregious goings-on in the boxing world than unorthodox matchmaking. Maybe consider fixing the abhorrent judging and pervasive corruption problems before you start criticising one fight, which was actually more back-and-forth than most expected, for "ruining the sanctity of boxing." Mayweather vs. McGregor was just a bit of fun. Stop overthinking it. One guy won, one guy lost, both made money, fans got an intriguing spectacle and the T-Mobile Arena was treated to a fight that will go down in boxing history, if more for its uniqueness than its quality.