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Paulie Malignaggi: 'Mental pressure' was key to Floyd Mayweather defeating Conor McGregor

Paulie Malignaggi believes that the key to Conor McGregor’s downfall was the mental edge that Floyd Mayweather brought to the ring.

The 40-year-old Mayweather took his time analyzing and adapting to his UFC counterpart in Saturday’s main event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., as he had in countless championship boxing bouts prior to facing “The Notorious.” In the 10th round, Mayweather turned up the pressure to pick up a TKO win and Malignaggi — who was working as a ringside analyst for Showtime — explained how the slow start was all part of Mayweather’s gameplan.