Conor McGregor blasts Paulie Malignaggi: ‘He got his ass whooped’
Conor McGregor pulled no punches when addressing the situation with his former sparring partner Paulie Malignaggi after the two-time boxing champion exited his camp nearly two weeks ago.
The controversy stemmed from Malignaggi’s anger over photos from his sparring session with McGregor being released that put him in a less than favorable light when it came to how he did during 12 rounds with the UFC lightweight champion.
A video from the session was later released by UFC president Dana White that appeared to show Malignaggi getting knocked to the ground by a short punch from McGregor, although the retired boxer has claimed repeatedly that it was a push to the ground.
McGregor took aim at Malignaggi during his open workout this past weekend where he said the former two-division champion was mostly reacting after his pride was hurt from getting beat up for 12 rounds.
“It shows his character, in my opinion. He was looking for an exit,” McGregor said about Malignaggi. “The spars were not good for him. He took a lot of head trauma. Straight after it we were worried. The sparring partners were actually telling us when he was dropped back to the home that he was stumbling out of the car after the 12 rounder. He was knocked down, he was flattened against the ropes. Multiple times, the ropes kept him on his feet. We were worried about him.
“We thought the worst was going to happen. He was certainly badly concussed. Then he just got out of there and went running.”
The second video released by White showed Malignaggi taking some hard shots from the UFC lightweight champion before he was backed against the ropes from the exchange.
Of course the videos are barely 30 seconds of footage from 36-minutes the two fighters spent in the ring together, but McGregor claims that all 12 rounds were lopsided in fashion with him beating up Malignaggi again and again.
“I don’t mind Paulie. He came in, he spoke a hell of a game previous, very disrespectful to the skill set, very disrespectful to the discipline. But no matter what a man says, if they show up and try to answer that and try their best, you’ve got to give respect and that’s what happened,” McGregor said. “He showed up, he tried his best, it didn’t go his way. He got his ass whooped, he got his pride dented and then he wanted a way out. What better for a guy like him to exit under a load of questions.
“He can say what he wants, the guy is a mouthpiece. I don’t know what else to say. He came in, he got his ass whooped, he got his ego badly dented and that’s it.”
McGregor says he was the one responsible for sending out the sparring footage that was later released as proof that he got the better of Malignaggi in the training session.
Since the video was released, Malignaggi has taken shots at McGregor and White for only posting a small clip rather than the full 12 round session that would tell the whole story behind the sparring match.
Obviously, McGregor isn’t backing down while also stating that he believes Malignaggi was only speaking out after not actually remembering much of what happened during their 12-round sparring session thanks to the amount of head trauma he received.
“We sent the footage of the knockdown, we sent the footage over and I think they are refusing to show it. He was flattened,” McGregor said. “What can I say? He got his ass whooped. I like the guy. He’s like a lovable mouthpiece. But it did not go well for him.
“When I was hearing all the stuff he was saying, I was like it’s concussion talk. The man is badly, badly concussed. I mean look at his face. He was busted up bad.”
