Former Boxing Champ: McGregor Is Working On Shots Besides The Left Hand

Conor McGregor is now just weeks away from making his professional boxing debut, and he’ll do so against one of the best boxers of this generation in Floyd Mayweather on Aug. 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Many have given McGregor a slim chance of winning the bout, but former boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi, who McGregor recently brought in to be a sparring partner, said there’s a method to the Irishman’s madness:

“He’s got a game plan behind it,” Malignaggi told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “It’s not what people think. There’s a game plan behind what he’s doing. There’s a method to Conor’s madness.”

Malignaggi also said that a recent sparring session between him and McGregor was ‘educational’, and that the “Notorious” one is ‘coming along’:

“It was educational,” said Malignaggi, who added that he had no expectations coming in. “There was a lot of trash talking, which me and him both known to have a little bit. Like I said, we did eight good rounds of work. It was physical work and Conor is coming along.”

“In a championship camp, the sparring is intense, so I didn’t expect to go in there and it be a picnic,” Malignaggi said. “He’s a competitor, I’m a competitor. We went in there and there was a lot of trash talking right away. There was a lot of fighting right away. In the end, you look back on it was kind of fun. I don’t have everybody that can match my trash talking, but Conor definitely can. So it was making it a lot of fun.”

While many are indeed doubting McGregor, some have given him a chance based solely on his power, and specifically the power in his left hand. Malignaggi noted McGregor’s ‘big left hand’, but he also said that the Irishman is working on adding a few new tricks into his arsenal:

“You come into the situation already knowing Conor has a big left hand,” Malignaggi said of Mayweather’s likely mindset. “So if you’re fighting Conor, you’re probably gonna prepare for that left hand. So obviously Conor is working on other things besides the left hand, so that there could be a surprise element to it, too.”

How do you expect McGregor to perform on Aug. 26?