By Chris Williams: Conor McGregor finally had his first and possibly his last sparring session with Paulie Malignaggi in preparation for his event/fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. on August 26. McGregor, 29, and Malignaggi aren’t saying how the sparring session went unfortunately.
Malignaggi, 36, says what the details of the sparring session will stay in the gym. He’s not going to leak how things went in his session with the UFC star McGregor. There are rumors floating around that Malignaggi inked a non-disclosure agreement with McGregor for him not to spill the beans about what takes place during the sparring sessions with the Irish MMA fighter. That would make sense, because Malignaggi hasn’t uttered a peep today about what took place during his sparring with McGregor. We know that Malignaggi likes to talk. Surely, he would have said something by now about how his sparring session with McGregor unfolded. In the only photo of the sparring, McGregor looks to have a 20 pound weight advantage over Malignaggi.
They say I've got no hands. pic.twitter.com/FJfvj5qjKi
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 21, 2017
The photo that McGregor posted on his Instagram of him sparring Malignaggi makes him look like he’s schooling him. The photo shows McGregor in the best possible light. He can do that showing boating stuff against MMA fighters in the UFC, as they’re skilled in terms of their boxing ability. Trying to fight someone like Malignaggi with his hands behind his back, it’s likely that McGregor only tried that bit for a second and only when he was out of punching range. Malignaggi would make McGregor pay if he fought like that for any length of time.
I hope for the sake of the boxing fans that McGregor doesn’t showboat for 12 rounds against Mayweather in their fight on August 26 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fans will be paying between $89 and $99 to see the Mayweather-McGregor fight on Showtime PPV. The fans are going to be expecting a real fight between Mayweather and McGregor. It’ll be embarrassing if all McGregor does is try and showboat for the entire fight while getting drilled by shots from Mayweather. McGregor needs to fight like a professional and not get sloppy, thinking he’s fighting one of his unskilled UFC guys.
The sparring session seems to be more about McGregor wanting to get even with Malignaggi (36-8, 7 KOs) for his trash talking in the past rather than for the things that he can learn from the former 2 division world champion. It’s doubtful that McGregor was able to do any damage to Malignaggi during the sparring session. Malignaggi is the type of fighter that can hold up well against counter punchers. The fighters that give Malignaggi problems are pressure fighters and guys with big power.
Malignaggi was recently stopped by Sam Eggington in the 8th round on March 4 in London, England. Eggington is a good fringe contender. He’s world class, but obviously a bottom level fringe contender type of fighter. I would favor Eggington to beat McGregor any day of the week. I think it would be an easy fight for Eggington. Malignaggi was stopped by Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter within the last 3 years.
My guess is the Malignaggi-McGregor sparring session was a standoff. Judging by the things Malignaggi was saying on his Twitter account, it doesn’t sound like he got worked over by McGregor. If Malignaggi was devastated by McGregor, he’d likely be smothering the UFC fighter with compliments from head to toe. That’s the way Malignaggi is. He gives credit to guys that get the better of him.
”Work is work, the respect comes before and after, it does make the Boxing more fun to talk [expletive] and showboat, we both did our share lol,” said Malignaggi on his Twitter. ”Good rounds last night with @TheNotoriousMMA. My code is sparring details stay in the gym. Look forward to helping him get ready for 8/26,” said Malignaggi.
Not surprisingly, there is no existing video of the McGregor-Malignaggi sparring session. The only thing that exists is a flattering photo of McGregor with his hands behind his back, standing in front of Malignaggi in what looks to be a taunting effort on McGregor’s part. The thing that jumps out at me is how much bigger McGregor looks compared to Malignaggi. McGregor looks like a super middleweight standing in front of a small welterweight. The size difference between the two fighters is extraordinary. It’s easy for McGregor to act brave against a small, light hitting puncher like Malignaggi. It would be a different story if McGregor was standing in front of a top middleweight or super middleweight. O hope for McGregor’s sake that he doesn’t try his showboating tactics against Mayweather on August 26, because he’ll get knocked out. Mayweather will nail McGregor with a straight right hand if he puts his hands behind his back and dares him to hit him. McGregor doesn’t possess the hand speed to try that move against Floyd (49-0, 26 KOs).
McGregor (0-0) had been talking about wanting to hire Malignaggi as a sparring partner, but he had done nothing to make that happen. I guess he finally decided to get it out of the way. I think it was a move on McGregor’s part to try and drum up some interest from boxing and MMA fans to purchase the fight on Showtime PPV. The sparring news will possibly get some boxing fans to purchase the Mayweather-McGregor fight on PPV. I don’t know that it’s going to get the MMA fans that are sitting on the fence wondering whether to buy the fight or not to want to purchase it. The MMA fans likely have never heard of Malignaggi.
It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t see McGregor and Malignaggi fight each other for real in a test fight to see how well McGregor would stand up against him. That would be a good test for McGregor to see how well he’d do against a former two division world champion. If McGregor could have his way with Malignaggi, then it would inspired a lot of boxing fans to pour their money into paying to see the Mayweather-McGregor fight. That would have been a smart move if McGregor was confident enough in his own boxing skills to take on a fighter like Malignaggi.