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Conor McGregor releases statement following Floyd Mayweather defeat


Dublin light middleweight Conor McGregor [0-1(1)] today released a statement commenting on his professional debut loss.

The two-weight UFC champion moved across to boxing to face Floyd Mayweather last weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Following an unprecedented build-up, the mega event ended with McGregor being stopped standing in the tenth round.

‘The Notorious’ had success in the early rounds, but Mayweather would soon take over and McGregor became quickly fatigued.

In his statement posted on his social channels, McGregor thanked his team and described his belief that with a longer camp and some tweaks he could have gotten a better result on Saturday night.

The Crumlin 29 year old also gave credit to his opponent and, perhaps looking to entice him into mixed martial arts, paid tribute to his skills – and claiming they would transition well to the octagon.

The statement in full read:

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!

gym trition

frayne carpentry

Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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