If Conor McGregor had his way, he would have been matched up with Paulie Malignaggi inside the Octagon.
The animosity between McGregor and Malignaggi is no secret. Before his “Money Fight” with Floyd Mayweather, McGregor brought Malignaggi in his camp for sparring sessions. After the second session, Malignaggi left the camp early.
Leaked photos were to blame for “The Magic Man’s” early exit. Soon after, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White released a video of what appeared to be “Notorious” knocking down Malignaggi.
McGregor and Malignaggi exchanged words during the final media day for the Mayweather bout. McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh recently spoke to Mike Sheridan and said his fighter initially wanted a mixed martial arts bout against Malignaggi (via MMAFighting.com):
“Conor wanted that. He said to me, ‘Let’s get him in the Octagon’, and I said that there was no way that he would fight in MMA. You’ve got to be able to prove yourself in the arena. When Conor wanted a boxing license they could look at the Diaz 2 fight where there was more or less 25 minutes of boxing. Why would Paulie go to MMA? He’d never go to MMA. Now, Conor could tweet now and say ‘I’m fighting Paulie Malignaggi’, and I guess I would be wrong then.”
