Conor McGregor enlists help of two-weight world champion for Mayweather fight
Conor McGregor plans to bring in a former two-weight world champion ahead of his professional debut in August.
‘The Notorious’ debuts in Las Vegas on August 26th, live on Showtime pay-per-view, taking on none other than undefeated five-weight champion Floyd Mayweather.
The Dublin light middleweight is currently training at home before relocating to Vegas for the remainder of his camp in the coming weeks. At the moment he is sparring Tyrone welterweight Tiernan Bradley and American Dashon Johnson, whom Manny Pacquiao used for sparring ahead of his Mayweather bout in 2015, as well as doing one session with Dublin welter Jay Byrne.
McGregor plans to step things up when he hits Sin City, and has reached out to former IBF light welterweight and WBA welterweight champ Paulie Malignaggi [36(7)-8(5)] The Bronx boxer retired in March following his loss to Sam Eggington and is involved in analysis for Sky Sports and Showtime.
Malignaggi revealed to MMA Micks that “I did get called to go to camp with Conor McGregor”
“I was surprised because I haven’t really been training or I haven’t really been in the gym. So I started working out a little bit and I’m working out details to spar with McGregor.”
“If it’s something that will be feasible it will be cool.”
“They have reached out to me and we’re in talks, so we’ll see.”
“There’s a lot of curiousities I have. I know he’s an ultra-electric competitor – and I’ve seen his UFC fights, obviously he’s very, very talented. I’m curious to see how he’s coming along.”
“I don’t have my fighting eyes on anymore. I’m not coming in as a 22 year old parring partner – I’m coming in as a team player and I’m curious to see what’s there.”
Malignaggi had previously called out the Irish mixed martial artist, and admitted his respect for McGregor in approaching him despite this.
“I did call him out but I think that shows the character of the man,” noted the New Yorker.
“He could have said ‘screw that kid, he called me out, I’m not going to put him in my training camp’, but I think it shows the competitive spirit and the willingness to want to learn on the part of McGregor.”
“It shows you how hungry he is because he put that pride aside. It’s not easy to put that pride aside when you’re a fighter. It made me respect him a little more.”
