Floyd Mayweather came out of retirement last August, to give the fans what they’d been asking for, when he agreed to step back into the boxing ring to face UFC champion Conor McGregor.
The event crossed two worlds with boxing and mixed martial arts [MMA] came together for a once in a lifetime super-fight. In the end both fighters put on an entertaining fight and despite getting stopped by Mayweather, the UFC lightweight champ earned some respect for going ten rounds with boxing’s pound for pound king.
Following the fight, McGregor was very respectful of Mayweather and released a very classy statement on his social media where he gave a lot of praise to Mayweather for his skills.
“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!”
Mayweather also talked about the fight while on the Hollywood Unblocked Podcast and expressed some concern for Conor’s health.
“He has a career. You know, he still has a career. He’s still young,” Mayweather said to on the podcast. “It could’ve been very damaging. We have to think about these fighters. Even, like, my uncle Roger. Right now, I just got a call just before I came here. He keeps walking off, wandering off. No one can find him. He ends up in a hospital. So, brain damage – it happens. It happens.”
“OK, hold on. It’s a catch 22,” Mayweather said. “If I blew him out in the first round, they would have something to say. If we let the fight go on a little longer than expect, they’re going to have something to say. So it’s like, damned if I do, damned if I don’t. If I let it go the distance, they’re going to say something.
“Once again, we’re praising him. We’re not praising me. We’re praising him. Because I’m 40 years old, retired for two years. He’s 28, he’s active. I’m inactive. He’s taller, he’s bigger. Hey may not be stronger. He has a longer reach. He’s taller. He’s bigger. He’s younger. Youth is on his side. I’m just saying, everything on paper links on him. For me to come and be off, and really only train totally, probably three weeks .. and (I was) out every night partying.”
