Paulie Malignaggi wouldn't last a minute inside the Octagon with Conor McGregor.
Hell, Paulie Malignaggi, Floyd Mayweather, Andre Berto or any world class boxer probably wouldn't last more than a few seconds inside the cage against any elite UFC fighter. To anyone with at least two halves of a brain cell to rub together, that fact is as obvious as a booting from the Australian prime minister.
MMA fighters regularly train in boxing, boxers never train in jiu-jitsu, wrestling or any strikes that don't involve landing with their gloves. Logic would dictate that a mixed martial artist would fare significantly better inside the ring than a pugilist would with the 4oz gloves on.
That's why McGregor's suggestion at the recent
An Evening with Conor McGregor event in Glasgow for Malignaggi to 'come over and do an MMA bout' to settle their beef was so silly. Malignaggi would be at such a disadvantage that the result would be inevitable.
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The one positive of McGregor making such an unreasonable proposal to his former sparring partner is that at least he appears to be itching for a return to the UFC. He has a
belt to defend, a
trilogy to complete and
plenty of exciting match-ups waiting for him.
With all this in mind, the calls for 'the Notorious' to settle his differences with Malignaggi inside the ring have quietened significantly. Although the fact that the full, unedited footage of their sparring footage has yet to surface suggest that they are trying to keep the hopes of massively lucrative boxing grudge match alive.
Malignaggi believes McGregor has only two ways to back up the all the venom he's been spitting in his direction - either release the tape or fight him inside the ring, as he explained to
ES News.
"You talked all this shit about how you handled it in the cage. Not only are you not releasing the video, but now you want to not box either. Now you've got to be a man and prove yourself. You've got to show what kind of balls you've got."
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Unsurprisingly, Malignaggi wouldn't even consider taking on McGregor in any combat sport other than boxing. That is where the beef began, and that's where he feels it needs to end.
"It's easy to talk all that shit, but now it's so easy, you've got to box, you've got to prove it and no, we're not going in the cage because that's not where you handled me. You handled me in the ring, right? So no now go and prove it."
"That's what you've got to do. Maybe if you hadn't talked so much shit, maybe we would have considered it, but there's no consideration here. He's got to man up now. He's got to stand up for what he said."
He's not wrong.
