Because of sparring photos released online, Conor McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi instantly went from being training partners to rivals. Malignaggi, in particular, has been riffing about how several issues, including McGregor’s “mistreatment” of other sparring partners.
McGregor responded to Malignaggi’s claims by dismissing all of them as mere “concussion talk.” But for Malignaggi, all the bad blood and the build up only leads to him fighting the UFC lightweight champion.
“When you don’t like somebody, you don’t spar them, you fight them,” Malignaggi said on Monday’s MMA Hour episode. “You either fight them, or you just never mentioned them at all.