On Sunday morning, the general consensus in the sporting world was that Conor McGregor had acquitted himself very well in his professional boxing debut. Though stopped by Floyd Mayweather in the 10th round, the Irish man had competed with the best boxer of his generation, and held his own for the majority of the bout.
For the sports fans who were dismissive of the contest in every way, they got the expected result, but were seemingly happy to admit the fight hadn't been the farce they expected.
For those who always believed in McGregor, there was a broad acceptance that the task at hand was too big, but the way he performed in the early rounds in particular, as well as being stopped without being knocked down or out, meant he had lived up to his side of the bargain, and made it a real sporting contest.
Interestingly though, it's McGregor himself that seems to be the most reflective on what might have been. The fighter, always at his most humble (and likable?) in the immediate aftermath of a bout, said so himself in an Instagram message this morning, sent to thank his legions of fans for their ongoing support.
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!
It's an interesting, and humble, analysis of his training for the fight. As he said himself, there obviously wasn't much more he could have done in the timeframe available, but the lessons learned are certainly worth thinking about.
If after 10 rounds with Floyd Mayweather, McGregor feels that it was just stamina that stopped him from truly competing, you would have to think that another foray into the boxing ring is certainly on his mind.
