30 little-known facts about Floyd Mayweather Jr.

15. Mayweather has twice fought debuting boxers

Beyond the absurdity of an MMA star crossing over into boxing to face one of the greatest defensive pugilists to ever lace up gloves, part of the reason Mayweather-McGregor is so asinine is because the brash Irishman is making his boxing debut. That Nevada’s boxing commission, from strictly a competition standpoint, has sanctioned this bout is shameful.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has fought debuting boxers on two other occasions. In his first professional bout, Mayweather stopped Roberto Apodaca in two rounds; Apodaca last fought in 1999 and finished his career with a 1-5 record, suffering KO losses in all but one of his bouts. In his fourth contest in the paid ranks, Mayweather again scored second-round TKO against a novice pro — this time over Edgar Ayala, whose career record stands at 0-4 with his last fight coming in 2010 (which ended a 10-year layoff).

It goes without saying that despite never having boxed professionally, Conor McGregor is obviously an entirely different breed from Apodaca and Ayala. And yet, even if McGregor were to somehow perform as well as debuting Olympic champion Pete Rademacher did against Floyd Patterson in 1957, the ultimately farcical nature of the matchup is too strong to ignore.