Conor McGregor praises Floyd Mayweather's 'strong tools' in Instagram post

Andreas Hale

Despite losing by 10th round TKO to Floyd Mayweather last Saturday in their highly anticipated showdown in Las Vegas, Conor McGregor has seemingly been in high spirits. After the loss, he immediately discussed ways he could get better as a fighter and showed up at the post-fight news conference with a huge smile stretched across his face and a bottle of Irish whiskey in hand.

That’s what a $100 million payday will do for you.

But McGregor has continued to be open and honest about the fight and the UFC lightweight champion took to Instagram to deliver a lengthy message about his fight with Mayweather, his conditioning failing him and went as far as to suggest that Mayweather could have a future in MMA, if he wanted to.

In the post, McGregor suggested that a longer training camp could have benefitted his conditioning.

“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,” the 29-year-old said. “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.”

He also complimented Mayweather and wished him well in retirement. But notably stated that the 40-year-old possessed “strong tools” that could benefit him if he had ever decided to give MMA a try.

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!

A post shared by Conor McGregor Official (@thenotoriousmma) on Aug 31, 2017 at 1:21am PDT

“Congrats to Floyd on a well fought match,” McGregor continued. “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.”

With the super fight in his rearview mirror, McGregor will soon turn his attention back to the UFC, where it appears a third fight with Nate Diaz awaits.