Former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi admitted UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor defeated him in the majority of the rounds they sparred.
On Monday, Malignaggi did an interview on The MMA Hour and talked about his experience sparring with McGregor.
During the interview, Malignaggi admitted that McGregor may have gotten the better of him during their first eight-round sparring match and did better for the first half of their 12-round sparring session.
“Even if he got better from the first sparring, I got way better from the first sparring,” Malignaggi said. “And on the third and fourth one, I would’ve got better and better. By the end of camp, this guy would’ve understood after two sparring (sessions), that his ass was going to get beat for the rest of camp.”
Malignaggi said midway through their second sparring session he started getting the better of the UFC champion. He also said he would have done even better against McGregor if he would have stayed at his training camp.
“From about six rounds on, he became very hittable. So much more hittable that I was putting more weight on my shots and sitting down more on my shots, and of course, the body shots started to affect him more and more,” Malignaggi said.
Malignaggi traveled to Las Vegas to help McGregor train for his professional boxing debut later this month. He left the camp after photos were leaked of McGregor landing shots on him.
McGregor will fight Floyd “Money” Mayweather in a boxing match on Aug. 26 in Las Vegas.
