It was billed as the fight of the century: legendary bad-guy boxer Floyd Mayweather vs. mouthy MMA import Conor McGregor.
McGregor sure talked a big game (in fact, he’s kind of famous for it), but as much as we were all gunning for the stroppy bugger to make a clean sweep of his very first pro boxing match, the victory went to the actual pro.
The Irishman made it through ten rounds before copping a TKO, and Mayweather upped his stats to 50-0.
But from the way he celebrated, you’d think McGregor had come out the champion: dropping more than $100k at the bar during his party after the fight and pocketing a cool US$30 million.
Now, the notoriously self-championing MMA fighter has taken to Instagram to break down his side of the fight, including his training and where he reckons he went wrong, and to thank fans for their support. He also, surprisingly, gives genuine props to Mayweather for being “a solid fighter“, even saying that he has “some very strong tools he could bring into an MMA game“.
Is this a new, humble McGregor we’re seeing, or is he just feeling tender after several days hitting that Notorious-brand whiskey?
Read the whole (lengthy) post 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 take all 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!
