Conor McGregor has heaped praise on Floyd Mayweather after their superfight last weekend. It may be little surprise that the UFC fighter has warm feelings for the boxer who helped him earn a minimum of $30m from their bout but the build-up had been stormy with the two exchanging unpalatable slurs.

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



McGregor added he believes the 40-year-old could compete in mixed martial arts. “He has some very strong tools he could bring into an MMA game for sure,” wrote the Irishman.

McGregor said that fighting for 30 minutes had been a challenge as MMA fights last a maximum of 25 minutes.

“Getting to 12 rounds alone in practice was always the challenge in this camp,” he wrote. “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.”

Mayweather is estimated to have earned a minimum of $100m from the fight, and announced his retirement from boxing after his 10th-round TKO victory over McGregor. He ends his career with a perfect 50-0 record. McGregor has said he would consider fighting as a boxer in the future.