Conor McGregor has taken to Instagram to thank his family, team and supporters following his 13-second knockout victory over José Aldo in Las Vegas on Saturday.
"Thank you for all the kind messages!" the post read. "I am extremely grateful and proud to be in the position I am in.
“To the naked eye it was 13 seconds, but to my team and my family it has been a lifetime of work to get to that 13 seconds.”
He congratulated the staff at the UFC, before turning his thanks to the fans who travelled to the US this weekend.
“Thank you to all the fans who travelled and made this week what it was!! The travelling Irish are untouchable when it comes to creating the atmosphere needed to make a week like this what it was!!” he said.
“I am forever blown away by the support of my country. We have changed the game forever!!! Respect to a great champion in José Aldo. The true greats will always overcome adversity.”
In the post-fight press conference, McGregor was asked about his accurate prediction of how the fight would pan out.
“I said his right hand would get him into trouble,” he said, “it’s the shot I predicted, I said he’d overload on his right hand, I said I’d slip and I’d bang the left hook and that’s what happened”.
“Mystic Mac strikes again,” he said.
While he was happy with the quick finish, he said Aldo was a “phenomenal champion” and he would have liked a slightly longer fight.
“It would have been nice if the contest had stretched out a little bit longer, just for all that it’s been through, but I still feel the same process would have happened,” he said.
“You don’t want to see the only champion in the company’s history going out like that, so I had a little moment where I felt sorry for José,” he later added.
When asked about the Irish support, he predicted a “green, white and orange” Las Vegas strip on Saturday night.
He said: “All through the week I’m watching videos of the Irish going crazy throughout Las Vegas . . . the Irish fans, you can’t beat them.
“The whole world is looking at our country so I’m very very proud of that and I’m very very grateful.”
