Paulie Malignaggi Denies McGregor Fight Rumors

Rumors have been making the rounds on social media claiming that Paulie Malignaggi and Conor McGregor were in negotiations for a boxing match. This would make sense, as the pair have had bad blood with one another since 2017. Malignaggi recently did an interview with Express UK and shot these rumors down:

“Not true,” Malignaggi said. “But of course, Conor is the king of bulls**t so I would not be surprised if this Conor having his team put out rumours just to keep his name in the headlines.”

Malignaggi was a part of Conor McGregor’s early training camp for his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, the McGregor camp leaked out some footage from he and Malignaggi’s sparring session. The clip showed McGregor knocking Malignaggi down to the canvas. However, Malignaggi claims that a bad camera angle made it look like the Irishman knocked him down, when he truly tripped.

The former junior welterweight boxing champion says that McGregor has everyone fooled that he actually was able to knock a former world champion down in sparring. But he’s sure McGregor would never attempt to prove himself and actually fight him inside the ring in a legitimate bout:

“I assure you he will never fight me,” Malignaggi said. “No balls wasn’t a catchphrase, it is a fact. I’m sure the footage will be cut around to show what they want to show you. He doesn’t have much, though. Having said that, even with the not much they have, they’ve convinced basically everyone of this bulls**t narrative.

“It’s actually good fun to watch. I assure everyone it is, but he’s trying to perpetuate a lie. Me not being in shape or sharp aside, it was good action. And he has to thank his lucky stars that’s the shape I was in.

“Because despite 16oz gloves and headgear, that’s the only reason he doesn’t get stopped even in sparring. I had to deaden the pace for the sake of making sure I can finish the twelve rounds.

“It is the only reason he doesn’t get assaulted by me in that session. He has to, though, as we did eight rounds the first time. That one I still hadn’t got the memo that we had a beef and I took the casual approach to figuring out that he needs work. The second one, we both were meaner spirited though.

“He can show all footage, but if you haven’t got anything to be ashamed about, including the knockdown footage being twisted with the strange camera angles to sell it, then just show it as it is, right? I still don’t believe he has the balls to show the footage un-doctored.”