Conor McGregor fielded questions from reporters following his 10 round TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather on Saturday night — all while sipping on his own brand of whiskey (which certainly won’t help his conditioning). Here’s what he had to say on the fight.
McGregor on when he might get back into the octagon:
“I’m young, I’m fresh, and I’m ready. I mean, I was just tired in there I feel. You know what I mean? He caught me with some nice shots but I wasn’t dazed or rattled or anything like that so, I was just bollocksed - is the term we call it in Ireland...”
On what’s next for him:
“This was some buzz, to come in and face this man. And, you know, so many doubters, so many ‘it’s never gonna happen’...and I always thought ‘we can get this fight happen.’ Then it was like ‘I’m not gonna lay a glove’ and there was so many things to overcome and I just enjoyed the whole experience so I’m just relishing in it for now. I have many options in mixed martial arts. I’m sure there’s options now that will present itself in the boxing game. Right now I’m a free agent. My name is on the ring...McGregor Sports and Entertainment on the ring, in a boxing ring, I’m very proud of that. So I’ll see what’s next but I’m open.
“I love competing, I love a good fight. Tonight was a damn good fight and that’s why you’re seeing me up here, showing my heart, I enjoyed myself and that’s it...We’ll see what’s next, I can’t tell you exactly what’s next but know something will be next.”
On two of the judges having the fight 8-1 for Floyd at the time of stoppage:
“I think that’s very, very biased. I’m actually shocked at that. I thought I won the first three rounds clearly. Fourth round can be argued either way, we’ll say 3-1. And then he started to take over then and I thought I snuck in 8, Round 8, then he won 9 and got the stoppage in 10. So, what was that, 5-4 into the final round and he got the win.
“But in reality all that means nothing. He got the win, respect to him. I enjoyed it. I thought I doing okay. You know, I thought I switch-hitted a few times, he was wise to that, I know Paulie was on the phone with him tellin’ him certain movements, but I switched, threw the lead hook, and he pulled from it a few times beautifully. Then I switched it up and hit the lead to the body, I caught him once or twice with that. But he’s a smooth operator in there. He’s not 50-0 for no reason. So I just enjoyed the whole process of it. I would’ve liken to seen the final bell. I think I deserved to see the final bell but what can you do?”