Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Conor McGregor is nearing the final stretch of his training camp for his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, it would appear that the UFC champion has recruited another boxing phenom to join his camp.
Former champion and retired boxer Paulie Malignaggi has been critiquing Conor McGregor at will, as the former boxer acted as a commentator for the first three runs of the Mayweather vs. McGregor press conference world tour. Now, it would appear that the former champion will be joining McGregor’s camp.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, as transcribed by MMA Fighting, Paulie Malignaggi explained what he will likely be doing in camp with the UFC champion.
“I guess it’s down to how long they need me to work,” Malignaggi said Monday on The MMA Hour. “We’ve discussed a couple potential things, but I don’t know (how long I’ll be out there), it’ll depend on them. I’ve always been in camp that’s been my training camp. I’ve never been in somebody else’s training camp. Even when I was a prospect and I helped champions get ready for their fights, it was mostly at home where I came up in Gleason’s Gym in New York, where there’s so many champions training there. A lot of times, I sparred with them a lot during their training camps in Gleason’s, but I was never a guy who was brought into camp as a sparring partner where I had to leave my house, where I had to leave home.
“This is the first time that ever happened to me, so in my professional experience when I used to run my own training camps, I’d make all the decisions. I’d meet with my team and we’d make all the decisions as far as how long sparring partners should stay, when a sparring partner should go, and all this other stuff. So, if I’m going by the way that I look at things, all those decisions are going to be up to them — how long they want to keep me around for, how long they don’t want to keep me around for, and so on and so forth. I’m just there to accommodate as best as I can.”
