UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor suffered a TKO loss to boxing legend Floyd Mayweather, Jr. on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. This bout will likely be the most lucrative fight of all time. Mayweather stopped him in the 10th round.
With McGregor losing the bout, several former foes and several boxing personalities have taken several shots at the UFC champion. As the days passed following the fight, McGregor stayed quiet until now. As seen in the fight, the UFC champion did show some pretty good things in ring considering that it’s his first outing as a professional.
Although McGregor looked good in the first three rounds, he started getting tired as the fight went on. Even McGregor cited patches of fatigue that he needs to overcome for him to become more effective in a lengthy statement that he posted on his official Instagram account. He made it clear and finally admitted that going 12 rounds was always a challenge for him during training camp.
Make no mistake about it, the conditioning in boxing is certainly different from conditioning in mixed martial arts, as there are very different muscle groups and movements that are used. McGregor showed up for the fight in great shape, but it wasn’t enough for him.
McGregor ended his statement by giving Mayweather props and taking back some of the things he said during the lead up to their bout. He issued the following:
“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!” he wrote on Instagram.
“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 wrote. “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!”
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