Conor McGregor: Getting to 12 rounds was always the challenge

— -- MMA star Conor McGregor broke his silence on social media Thursday by raising a toast to his fans, his team and even Floyd Mayweather, regretting only that he didn't have more time to prepare for his fight against the now-retired boxer.

"Just coming back around after a whirlwind couple of days," McGregor posted on Instagram. "...?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."

McGregor, the UFC's 155-pound champion who was making his professional boxing debut, lost to Mayweather by TKO in the 10th round of their junior middleweight fight on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Mayweather, who moved his record to a historic 50-0 with 27 knockouts, said after the fight he would return to retirement.

"Congrats to Floyd on a well fought match," McGregor said in the post. "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."

McGregor, meanwhile, said his 10-week training camp just wasn't enough time to prepare for the rigors of a 12-round boxing match.

"Getting to 12 rounds alone in practice was always the challenge in this camp," he said. "...?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."

McGregor said that, by lasting 30 minutes, he surpassed his own personal record for fighting "in a ring or cage or anywhere."

He said his previous high was 25 minutes.

As for what's next for McGregor?

"Onto the next one!" he wrote as a closing comment.