Conor McGregor’s most high-profile sparring partner has warned that the UFC superstar may get disqualified against Floyd Mayweather.
One of the most covered aspects of McGregor’s training camp for his boxing debut has been around his ill-fated sparring sessions with Paulie Malignaggi.
Malignaggi had been drafted in by ‘The Notorious’ so that he could experience the feel of sharing the ring with a former world champion but the working relationship soon broke down after McGregor released photographs of Malignaggi which portrayed him in an unfavourable light.
An image of Malignaggi, the former WBA welterweight champion, laying on the mat as McGregor stood over him went viral last month and after prompts from the Brooklyn boxer to release the footage, McGregor posted a short clip to social media which seemed to show the Irishman dropping Malignaggi.
Malignaggi has essentially not stopped tweeting since he left the training camp and he has recently shed the brightest light yet on the goings-on in McGregor’s sparring sessions as he revealed that the hall-of-fame referee enlisted by McGregor, Joe Cortez, was forced to deduct points from the Dubliner after a series of fouls.
“Rules are different in mixed martial arts than they are in boxing and he wanted to know what he’s doing wrong and what he’s doing right and what not so in every single sparring session he had, Joe Cortez was there,” Malignaggi told The Herd with Colin Cowherd, via BoxingScene.com.
For all the people who think @TheNotoriousMMA can't box. This is gonna be a FIGHT! Conor vs Paulie Malignaggi former IBF/WBA World Champion. pic.twitter.com/CcTkFq0fhr
— danawhite (@danawhite) August 12, 2017
“If anything, they’ve shot themselves in the foot because all the dirty stuff he does that the referee will actually warn him for. In that particular sparring session, there’s no judges, but he lost two points from that particular sparring session for fouls, for rabbit punching and hitting behind the head and pushing behind the head.”
Many experts and analysts point to a need for McGregor to utilise his unorthodox punching style to catch Mayweather off guard but a danger does exist that McGregor’s unfamiliarity with the rules of boxing may well lead to danger for the crossover star.
“What he really has to learn is to try to keep it within the rules because he’s a little bit confused as to what he’s doing in there. He’s a little bit confused, especially on the inside as you can see on that tape. He’s trying to grab and push the head down. Inside fighting in boxing is very different from inside fighting in mixed martial arts. You can’t grab. You actually have to know what you’re doing on the inside,” Malignaggi continued.
“I think Conor has to learn to turn punches over but more than that he needs to learn how to keep it clean. He’s gonna get himself disqualified if he keeps punching behind the head and pushing the head down. He needs to understand that inside fighting in boxing is different than inside fighting in mixed martial arts.”
