It has been nearly a full week since Conor McGregor made his professional boxing debut against perhaps the greatest boxer of his era, Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The UFC lightweight champion lost in the 10th round by technical knockout but did earn respect from around the combat sports world for his performance.
McGregor, after all, did manage to land more punches—and connected on a higher percentage of his shots—in less than 10 full rounds than Manny Pacquiao did in 12 complete rounds against Mayweather.
The Irish superstar, who is in for a payday that could end up surpassing $100 million, took the loss in stride and after a few days of silence released a lengthy statement early Thursday.
McGregor didn’t say anything flattering about Mayweather during their July international press tour, but after sharing the ring with the 40-year-old he has softened his stance on the boxing legend.
You can read McGregor’s full statement below:
Just coming back around after a whirlwind couple of days. Thank you to all the fans for the support of the fight and the event! Without your support we as fighters are nothing so I thank you all! Thank you to my team of coaches and training partners! I had an amazing team and It truly was an amazing and enjoyable camp, and honestly I feel with just a little change in certain areas of the prep, we could have built the engine for 12 full rounds under stress, and got the better result on the night. Getting to 12 rounds alone in practice was always the challenge in this camp. We started slowly getting to the 12 and decreasing the stress in the rounds the closer it got to 12. I think for the time we had, 10 weeks in camp, it had to be done this way. If I began with a loaded 12 rounds under much stress I would have only hit a brick wall and lost progress as a result and potentially not made the fight. A little more time and we could have made the 12 cleanly, while under more stress, and made it thru the later rounds in the actual fight. I feel every decision we made at each given time was the correct decision, and I am proud of everyone of my team for what we done in the short time that we done it. 30 minutes was the longest I have fought in a ring or cage or anywhere. Surpassing my previous time of 25 minutes. I am happy for the experience and happy to all take these great lessons with me and implement them into my camp going forward. Another day another lesson! Congrats to Floyd on a well fought match. Very experienced and methodical in his work. I wish him well in retirement. He is a heck of a boxer. His experience, his patience and his endurance won him this fight hands down. I always told him he was not a fighter but a boxer. But sharing the ring with him he is certainly a solid fighter. Strong in the clinch. Great understanding of frames and head position. He has some very strong tools he could bring into an MMA game for sure. Here is a toast of whiskey to everyone involved in this event and everyone who enjoyed it! Thank you to you all! Onto the next one!
36.1k Likes, 642 Comments – Conor McGregor Official (@thenotoriousmma) on Instagram: “Just coming back around after a whirlwind couple of days. Thank you to all the fans for the…”
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