Paulie Malignaggi has some advice for Conor McGregor going into his Aug. 26 showdown with Floyd Mayweather.
McGregor and Mayweather will clash inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Malignaggi sparred with McGregor briefly and it caused a stir in the boxing community. Sparring footage was sent out by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White and Malignaggi appeared to have been knocked down.
Despite the heat between Malignaggi and McGregor, the “Magic Man” told Colin Cowherd what “Notorious” needs to work on to beat “Money” (via MMAFighting.com):
“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. . .”
He went on to warn McGregor that a disqualification is very well possible if he doesn’t clean up his awareness of boxing rules.
“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.”
