Paulie Malignaggi and Conor McGregor share one of the most high-profile beefs in combat sports. Given the animosity between the retired boxer and the former two-division UFC champion, it should come as no surprise that Malignaggi had an interesting reaction when he encountered a McGregor-inspired mural out in the world.
As he walked past this mural, Malignaggi was asked how he feels about McGregor. He responded by spitting on the mural. See it in the video above.
Paulie Malignaggi has long campaigned for a boxing match with his arch rival Conor McGregor. While this fight doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen any time soon, Malignaggi will soon have the chance to take his frustrations out on McGregor’s friend and training partner Artem Lobov. The pair will meet in a bare knuckle at BKFC 6 this June.
Malignaggi believes that if he’s able to lay a beating on Lobov, he might be able to coax McGregor into a fight.
“What’s gonna eat him inside more is when I put his boy in the hospital and he’s gonna be able to do nothing about it,” Paulie Malignaggi told Helen Yee (transcript via MMA Fighting). “That’s gonna be even more satisfying.
“Once I put his boy in a coma, he’s gonna want to fight me,” Malignaggi said. “If he’s any kind of man, he would. So once I do that in June, he will want to fight me, but the conversation doesn’t even get initiated unless 12 rounds of sparring, unedited, the way it actually happens, comes out. If it doesn’t, then Conor doesn’t even start the conversation.”
How do you think Conor McGregor will react to this disrespect from Paulie Malignaggi.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/1/2019.