Paulie Malignaggi Says He Went ‘Back And Forth’ With Conor McGregor In Sparring

We are just days away from the biggest combat sporting event in history, as UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is set to make his professional boxing debut against, arguably, the greatest of all time in undefeated 49-0 legend Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The pair are expected to go 12 rounds on August 26th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada at 154 pounds. Despite being given little to no chance at earning the victory that so many before him failed to get get, “The Notorious One” is taking preparations for the bout extremely serious. Former two weight boxing champ Paulie Malignaggi was brought in as a sparring partner for McGregor, and a photo of that sparring session was posted by the Irishman in which he was taunting the former champ.

Malignaggi recently did an interview with ESPN to discuss his rounds inside the ring with the 155-pound UFC champ, claiming to have seen improvement throughout their various sessions (quotes via ESPN):

“I think the intensity Conor’s reaching is starting to show in the hard work he’s put into camp,” Malignaggi told ESPN. “I think he’s getting better and better. I really felt improvements from two weeks ago to now … I do see a guy who is implementing more and more of what they want to do in their game plan.”

This past Tuesday’s (August 1, 2017) session saw McGregor and Malignaggi go 12 rounds, and the recently retired boxer described the action as having ‘a lot of violence’:

“Lot of violence,” Malignaggi said. “I went in there to prove a point. I didn’t like the fact I had to fly across the country on Monday, and they have me scheduled for 12 [rounds] on Tuesday. I thought it was a little bit of a setup.

“Usually all sparring is private. I show up at the UFC headquarters and [former owner, Lorenzo] Fertitta is there. [UFC president] Dana White is there. So, I’m thinking these guys are thinking they’ll catch me right off the flight, set me up for him to look good in front of his audience. I didn’t like that. I kind of went in with a chip on my shoulder.”

In addition to bringing in Malignaggi, McGregor has also added Hall Of Fame boxing referee Joe Cortez to his camp to officiate his sparring sessions. Recently Cortez claimed that a sparring session between McGregor and Malignaggi got a little out of hand, a report Malignaggi confirmed:

“Conor wants his presence to be felt. He’s coming to win, right?” Malignaggi said. “He wants you to know you’re in a fight. He doesn’t want you to think it’s a picnic. So, any time he’s in the ring, he’s trying to make it as rough as possible — be it roughhouse tactics, be it trying to land hard shots.

“There was a pushdown yesterday. Conor on the inside, he can get a little rough. He shoved me down, you know, but no knockdowns. Obviously, 12 rounds, you’re gonna see there’s a mark on my face. Very, very hard work for both of us. I was starting to get in a groove in the middle rounds, starting to land some good shots. Conor really came on strong in the end. It was back and forth.”

Despite the mutual respect developed between the two champions during their time together inside the ring, Malignaggi doesn’t expect to be best friends with McGregor anytime soon:

“We’re like, I think the gist from Conor is we’re like ‘frenemies.’ I think somewhere in the middle,” he said.

“I don’t think we’re going to be best friends any time soon, but there was a lot more mutual respect after that kind of work last night,” Malignaggi said. “It was a lot more intense than the first one.”