Former multiple time boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi is set to make a comeback against former UFC featherweight and Conor McGregor’s training partner Artem Lobov at Bare Knuckle FC 6 on June 22.
Obviously, the rivalry between the two extends back to 2017 when MMA superstar ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor was training for his boxing superfight against legend Floyd Mayweather. Malignaggi served a helping hand to help McGregor with his sparring. Little did he knew that would backfire on him. McGregor released a video of him dropping Malignaggi in a sparring session. The video went viral and Malignaggi started receiving a lot of heat from the MMA and combat community.
Even though it was not evident whether it was a knockout or a slip, Malignaggi was adamant to the fact that the world was exposed to only a small part of the story and that the bigger picture told something else. Speaking with MMA Junkie, Malignaggi recalled what was exactly said between the two.
“He says one thing, but his actions speak another thing, you know what I’m saying? When we talked about his sparring time, he said he couldn’t believe the shots I took. That’s 90 percent of the offense,” Malignaggi said. “He said ‘that wasn’t me, great job, great sparring session.’ That was one of the best sparring sessions he ever had. Everyone at the table said that was one of the best sparring sessions they ever saw. Look, that was one of the more simple sparring sessions of my life, OK? I’ve been in gym wars.”
“That was such, the fact that the MMA community thought that was a fun sparring session, I’m sure you guys have been in the gym for some of these war-like sparring sessions, where you should get charged at the door,” Malignaggi continued. “This is not one of them. The fact they keep talking about it and presenting it like it was, shows you the limitations of these guys, and how I know that (Lobov) has no idea what’s waiting for him next month.”
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