McGregor: We were worried about Malignaggi, he ‘took a lot of head trauma’
At his Media Scrum, McGregor talks about his sparing session with Malignaggi.
He was looking for an exit. The spars were not good for him. He took a lot of head trauma. Straight after it we were worried. The sparring partners were actually telling us when he was dropped back at the home that he was stumbling out of the car after the 12-rounder…He was flattened against the ropes; multiple times the ropes kept him on his feet. We were worried about him. We thought the worst was about to happen. He was certainly badly concussed. And then he just got out of there and went running…He showed (up), he tried his best, it didn’t go his way. He got his ass whooped, he got his pride dented, and then he wanted a way out. What better way for a guy like him to exit under a load of questions…He was flattened. What can I say? He got his ass whooped. But I like the guy. He’s kind of like a lovable mouthpiece.
McGregor: Mayweather is a ‘rat and a weasel’ for racism claims
In response to accusations from Mayweather that McGregor’s team called his team ‘monkeys’:
I just didn’t like when he called us monkeys. I think that was totally disrespect. He called us monkeys. I didn’t like it. It didn’t push a button to make me jump out of my character and go crazy, but I didn’t like it.
At his Media Scrum, McGregor says:
He knows there’s no racism from me; his father knows, [his manager] Leonard Ellerbe knows, ask these people. He says I labelled him a monkey, I never once labelled him or any other African American a monkey, and it f****** annoys me he’s bringing this stuff up…If I was to label him after any animal it would be a rat or a weasel, that’s a rat and a weasel move trying to manipulate someone’s words and create something that isn’t even there. That’s such a sensitive subject. He’s a man who beats his wife in front of his kid. He is the dirt of the dirt so to even bring that up and engage in that, that shows me his true colours.
Ellerbe: $60 million box office answers critics
Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather productions says critics of the fight, such as Oscar de la Hoya, are on the wrong track.
The fact of the matter is we have over $60 million in the box office right now, which is more than double any other live gate that’s ever been done. The fight that they have on the 16th of September (Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin) next month, our fight right now we’ve got more in the box office right now — double — than they will have…Mind your f****** business. “You know? It’s like do your job, cover the sport. Obviously, you have to give your opinion, which we understand that. It’s like, we don’t see you saying nothing else about anybody else’s events. We know what this is about. It’s like, OK, one thing is for sure — you’re not gonna stop this event. The fans demanded this event and that’s what they’re gonna get. We didn’t ask for this. Social media was on fire because these two guys were going at it…Did we happen to miss the world tour? Did we see the record number of amount of fans to come out and support a world tour. You kidding me?
Mayweather: Beating McGregor by decision would be ‘win for him’
Mayweather says he will have failed if he fails to knock out McGregor in their upcoming fight.
If the fight goes the distance it is a win for him. But I don’t think that is going to happen. He is going around saying that it will be over in four rounds, and he might be right. But it will be because I say so, and not him…The people should expect entertainment, and that is what I am going to give them. They have to understand that this is a show. One of the biggest shows in history. No one is going to be disappointed. I will be coming forward. I am coming to get him.
Barker: McGregor should fight Malignaggi next
Former world champion Darren Barker says McGregor should stay in boxing after facing Floyd Mayweather and settle his feud with Malignaggi.
I think McGregor will box again after this fight. I have called it a bad day for UFC, because I think they will lose McGregor. He’ll be loving the hype around this fight and especially the money…He won’t be able to get an opponent like Mayweather again, but he is going to love being involved in the No 1 combat sport which is boxing, no doubt. It’s stood the test of time and I think McGregor will want to be a part of it for years to come…I think McGregor released those pictures for his own confidence, regardless of what happened, to try and unsettle Mayweather in some way. But that’s going to be impossible as Mayweather has seen and heard it all before. Good luck to McGregor for trying.
McGregor: ‘Precision beats power, and timing beats speed’
The UFC posts a short McGregor video.
Precision beats power, and timing beats speed.
"Precision beats power, and timing beats speed."#MayweatherMcGregor @TheNotoriousMMA pic.twitter.com/xOHZE90XA8
— UFC (@ufc) August 9, 2017
Mayweather: ‘This is for all the blacks around the world’
In an interview with ESPN, Mayweather says he will not fight defensively, and will take the fight to McGregor, and that he didn’t like McGregor calling his team ‘monkeys’.
If you look like it on paper, it leads to Conor McGregor…This can’t be a defensive fight. I gotta go there. I have to go to him. I gotta do what I gotta do. I owe the public for the Pacquiao fight…I didn’t like when he called us monkeys. That was disrespectful. I didn’t like it…I just thought about all our different leaders, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, that went on the front line for me and my family and all of my loved ones. And this stuff still goes on. But I’m smart, strong and patient…This is for all the blacks around the world.
Roddy: McGregor gets better every day, every week
Roddy, McGregor’s striking coach, praises his fighter’s progress.
We’re all very happy and very excited. Conor improves on a daily basis. The Conor of today is better than the Conor of yesterday. He gets better every day, every week. We’ve got another three weeks, so there will be huge improvements again. He is such a good student. He has a great ability to pick up on things. I don’t know how he does it. I’ve never seen it before from any student. From the start of camp to now, he has improved phenomenally and he will continue to improve over the next couple of weeks. It’s so exciting.
Bradley: I was there when McGregor sparred Malignaggi
In an article in The Irish News, Tiernan says he is surprised by Malignaggi’s statements.
Any time I’ve logged on to social media, it’s been ‘Paulie say this’ or ‘Paulie says that’ – we all know Paulie can talk, but even he must be exhausted after doing so many interviews. It’s almost a week since he left the training camp, and it was a shame to see him go. Although he was only really about for a week-and-a-half, Paulie was a good guy to have around the place. But, having been here the whole time, some of the things he has come out with in the last seven days have taken me by surprise.
On the sparring session:
I did Paulie’s corner for the spar, their second after a feisty first encounter, and I can safely say it will be very interesting when the video comes out after the fight. When you’re in sparring, sometimes you think you’re doing better than you are, but watching back afterwards can reveal the true nature of the spar. I’ve experienced that myself, you start to notice little things you did wrong, or maybe punches landed that you don’t remember…Conor stayed very professional; Paulie was saying stuff and then getting hit. Conor chose his moments to talk back. There are tactics to mental warfare too, knowing when to talk, and then there’s stupidity.It wasn’t a one-sided spar either way but I thought one was the clear winner overall and that was Conor. He was very calm, very professional and, honestly, he really impressed me on the day.
When Malgnaggi saw the ‘shovedown’ photo:
He was clearly pissed off, showing us his phone, saying ‘what the f**k?’ or whatever. It was weird though because after that Conor came into the changing room but Paulie didn’t mention it, even though they did speak. We were in the car home from training to get food and Paulie was like ‘drop me back to the house’. You could see he was hanging his head, thinking about things. He was in a bad mood. We left him to the house and when we came back he was gone – we were only away about 45 minutes. He must’ve been straight in, suitcase packed, out the door…As for the ‘knockdown’ itself, you can make your own mind up when the footage is eventually released, if anybody even cares by that stage. I’ve seen people say that, from the photo, you can tell that it was a push down by the body language of Joe Cortez. I can tell you now – Joe didn’t see the incident that led to Paulie being on the ground. He didn’t see it.
This camp is not about Paulie. When we’re in the gym, we’re concentrating on Conor, getting him ready. I did some school sparring with him on the Thursday, the day Paulie left and it was as if nothing had happened. This is not the Big Brother house. It’s a training camp, and that’s all anybody left here cares about.
Referee Cortez: McGregor is an excellent student
Cortez, who has officiated over 170 world title bouts, comments on the sparring sessions between McGregor and Malignaggi.
August 26th is going to be a big fight here in Las Vegas and the whole world is going to be watching it. It will be one of the biggest pay-per-views in the history of any sport and I’m glad to be part of it in the sense that I’m teaching McGregor how to fight boxing instead of MMA. I’m teaching him the boxing rules, I’m not teaching him to fight, just teaching him the rules. I was hired to teach him the unified rules to make sure he doesn’t commit any fouls. I don’t want to see him disqualified or have any point deductions during the fight…He’s an excellent student, he’s learning real quick. Everything I’m teaching him, he’s learning. This is the biggest fight for him and these guys are making over 100 million dollars a piece. They better abide by the rules and listen to what I’m telling them because we want a good clean fight…McGregor is a puncher. McGregor is quick with his punches, he hits hard, so anything is possible.
Malignaggi: McGregor is a ‘scumbag’, ‘dirtbag’
On The MMA Hour, Malignaggi talks about his sparring experience with McGregor, admitting McGregor beat him in their first session.
It’s an uphill battle you’d always gonna be fighting. I just decided I gotta go.. No matter what happens in sparring — I could throw in a 10 or 12 hour beating, but he’s still gonna have photos take only for him..It’s a little bit frustrating…I really came in with the best of intentions…He got better from the first time to the second time but it’s still new to him so the increments he’s growing at are quite small. My reactions and timing started to come back so I got way better from the first one…It’s about ego, and I’m not an ass-kisser like the guys around him. It’s all about status, he’s a scumbag. It’s all about who kisses his ass better…I’ve met a few scumbags in my life but this guy is one of the biggest dirtbags I’ve ever met in my life, bar none. I don’t care if we never speak again. My life will be fine if I never see Conor McGregor again.
Bisping: McGregor can beat Mayweather, but only with an early KO
Bisping says McGregor has to hit early.
Of course he has a chance, everybody has a puncher’s chance. Conor has more than a puncher’s chance because he’s working and sparring hard, he’s athletic and he’s got good timing. But to win he’s got to turn it into a brawl, simple as that. He can’t try to outbox Floyd Mayweather because he will lose if he tries to. He’s got to go for the early knockout. The longer the fight goes the more it swings in Floyd’s favour.
Malignaggi: McGregor is weird and arrogant
Malignaggi continues to criticise McGregor, during an interview on Fox 5.
Only his photographers are allowed in the gym, so they’re gonna get pictures favorable to him. I don’t mind that…He knows, and I know that that wasn’t from a punch. He was actually frustrated from being getting beaten up that day, and that was actually a shovedown, a pushdown…I wouldn’t have went around saying I’d beat up McGregor, if I wasn’t forced to…He can definitely fight, he is an MMA champion. But as for boxing…he has to progress, and it’s not so easy to come along that fast…My problem with Conor is his arrogance. He’s arrogant to the point where he can’t make progress, he can’t learn. He doesn’t want to be told he’s doing something wrong…I’m not like Conor McGregor, even if I had knocked down Conor McGregor and had a picture of it, I wouldn’t have posted it on social media…He’s trying too hard to sell it…He took it a little personally, he’s a bit of a weird guy in in that way.
Malignaggi: McGregor ‘whimpers like a girl when he gets ripped’
In a series of tweets, Malignaggi says he regrets agreeing to spar with McGregor and is promising to reveal everything about the training sessions later this week.
Yea but this coming week I’ll actually start to discuss a bit what happened Tuesday, he whimpers like a girl when he gets ripped to body lol…Truthfully I was tryin hard 2 not make him look bad but if u listen 2 me b4, the praise is hollow, there wasn’t much substance 2 that praise…I won’t speak tactics of his, that I wouldn’t do, I still have some ethics I’m not Conor but def will give the story straight about stuff…I did [give him an ass whoppin’] after Tues work, I suppose the ass whippin didn’t suit him so he posted dumb pics again by Thurs while skipping sparring that day…I wouldn’t say that {McGregor gave me a tough session], a guy who’s been retired 4 months n jus got back in gym 2 spar with him was kickin his ass by second sparring sesh lol.
Malignaggi claims he was not paid for McGregor work
Malignaggi says he was not paid by the McGregor camp, but that he is fine with it, claiming he gave McGregor an ‘ass beating’.
I didn't get paid, I'm not worried about it though. I paid him with the ass beating he recieved from me on Tuesday lol https://t.co/HnsfUGKMKk
— Paul Malignaggi (@PaulMalignaggi) August 5, 2017
Quigley: McGregor will KO Mayweather
Quigley says McGregor will shock the boxing world with a knockout against Mayweather.
I first met him in Boston when we did a charity event together about three years ago. He was just very respectful, he knew me already, and his profile has really blown up. I also bumped into Conor in Venice, Los Angeles, when he was rolling along on his low-rider bicycle. We exchanged numbers and have kept in touch since. He came out here one time looking for sparring, but I wasn’t able to spar because I had just fought James De la Rosa…Everybody thinks he has no chance, apart from myself, but Conor has the whole of Ireland behind him and anybody with the whole Ireland behind them is going to give someone problems….I’m not going to change my prediction, I think Conor McGregor is going to knock Floyd Mayweather out.
You have to step back and look at the statistics. Everybody is looking at Floyd Mayweather as the boxer, the world champion, undefeated, this, that, whatever. The man is 40 years of age. Conor is 29, in his prime, and alright he’s not a boxer, that’s plain to see, he’s an MMA fighter and that is how he’s made his career. But he is one of the best boxers skill-wise in MMA and his timing, reactions are on point.
McGregor: Malignaggi ‘got his ass whooped’
McGregor talks about Malignaggi coming to his camp. He had initially invited Malignaggi because of his trash talk.
I looked at his stance. Looked at his approach. Some similarities to Floyd. I dint really give a f—if he was similar to Floyd.. He was speaking a hell of a game.
After they spar:
He stayed in there. Got to give respect to that. But that was it. He came, he got his ass whooped. And that”s it.
Nick Diaz: If McGregor can hit Nate, he can hit Mayweather
Nick Diaz says McGregor has an understanding of boxing that could work against Mayweather.
As far as MMA, I want to say there’s maybe five guys that do jiu-jitsu that have an actual level of understanding when it comes to boxing. He obviously does. I feel like, if he can hit my brother he can definitely can put up somewhat of a fight with Floyd, if not actually bring him an actual challenge…I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I could say one thing, I could be wrong. Also, the ups and downs of life, you never know what’s going on. Either one of these guys could have a bad – like the last time my brother fought he had broken ribs, torn rib tissue. Neither one of those fights worked out for him. He had 13 days the first time and the next time he was injured. I was there for it.
Joshua responds to claims he slept with Khan’s wife
Joshua responds to claims that he is having an affair with Khan’s wife.
Bantz aside, I hope you guys can resolve your situation or this is a hack as we have never even met! Plus I like my women BBW #ItWasntMe
— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyjoshua) August 4, 2017
Bantz aside, I hope you guys can resolve your situation or this is a hack as we have never even met! Plus I like my women BBW #ItWasntMe
— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyjoshua) August 4, 2017
Malignaggi leaves McGregor’s training camp
After the release of a photo by one of McGregor’s team that, according to Malignaggi, gave a false impression that he had been knocked down by McGregor, the boxer says he will leave McGregor’s training camp.
I just wanted to clear the air. I am leaving the McGregor training camp today. I came with best intentions & intended to help out. Just the chance to be part of such a big event in this capacity excited me.
I believe Conor & I have a mutual respect inside the ring, earned from each other with some good work over 2 sparring sessions. It’s some of the stuff outside the ring and some ways some things were handled in training camp that I didn’t agree with that made me come to this decision. It’s not my place to dictate terms in a training camp that is not mine, but it’s my place to decide if I want to be part of it. I will not give away anything tactical that I saw in 2 sparring sessions with Conor.
For what it’s worth, they have my word. The things that upset me though I will speak about in time. I wish team McGregor well in the rest of their preparations and look forward to being back in Vegas to work fight week on Showtime.