Hysterical! Malignaggi ‘Would Have Destroyed’ McGregor

Sometimes it’s better to just let things go.

Former boxer, Paulie Malignaggi (36-8), indirectly became a bigger part than expected in the 2017 Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor cross-sport boxing spectacle. Sparring on one particular occasion with “The Notorious” in the build up to the match, Malignaggi was filmed getting knocked down by the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) double champion.

Unfortunately for Malignaggi, the footage eventually surfaced after differing stories of the situation continued to float in the ether. Ultimately, Malignaggi and McGregor’s brief relationship turned sour and led Malignaggi to a bare-knuckle boxing match against McGregor’s old best friend, Artem Lobov. Despite losing a controversial unanimous decision, Malignaggi, 43, still believes McGregor wanted no part of him.

“I’m a better trash talker than McGregor, that’s one of the reasons he did not fight me, I would have trashed him in the press conferences and the fight,” Malignaggi told Action Network. “It would have ended all of the hysteria around him because I would have destroyed him in the trash-talking and in the ring. I would have ruined the whole aura around him. He was smart not to pull the trigger on a fight with me.”

McGregor went on to lose his bout with Mayweather via 10th round technical knockout and hasn’t ventured back into the boxing ring since. Returning to mixed martial arts (MMA) after the loss, McGregor fell short in his attempt at reclaiming UFC Lightweight gold against Khabib Nurmagomedov, losing by fourth round neck crank submission at UFC 229 in October 2018.

It’s been more downs than ups for the 35-year-old McGregor inside the Octagon after facing Nurmagomedov. The Irishman is 1-2 in his last three bouts, suffering consecutive stoppage-finish losses against Dustin Poirier with the latter resulting in a broken leg (watch highlights) in July 2021.

“McGregor was lucky to achieve what he achieved in his career, physically and talent wise he’s up there, but just because you can do a bunch of high kicks from a Jean Claude Van Dam movie, doesn’t mean you’re a fighter; you need guts, you need a willingness to succeed, you need a willingness to enter the trenches and if you don’t have that, you’re going to fade,” Malignaggi said.

‘We’ve talked about A.J. (Anthony Joshua) losing that edge, but McGregor is on a different level. McGregor will quit on you, he does quit,” he continued. “AJ does not take as many risks anymore but at least he’s not quitting. McGregor is an outright quitter. He is a fighter that was not as good as advertised, there was great marketing behind him. And the money he’s made now isn’t helping, so you’ve got a problem — all he’s going to do is continue to be a punching bag. If you’re a punching bag in your 20s, you’ll definitely be a punching bag in your 30s.”