Former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi thinks there is a chance UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor may get disqualified in his first professional boxing match.
On Aug. 26, McGregor is scheduled to fight boxing icon Floyd “Money” Mayweather.
During a recent interview with Colin Cowherd, Malignaggi talked about McGregor’s issues with following the rules of boxing. According to Malignaggi, McGregor made a lot of mistakes during their sparring sessions.
“One thing Conor has to understand, and you see that in that clip that they sent out, it wasn’t so much that he’s landing shots because most of the shots are missing. If anything, they’ve shot themselves in the foot because all the dirty stuff he does that the referee will actually warn him for,” Malignaggi said.
“In that particular sparring session, there are no judges, but he lost two points from that particular sparring session for fouls, for rabbit punching and hitting behind the head and pushing behind the head.”
Malignaggi went on to say that McGregor is confused about the rules of boxing.
“What he really has to learn is to try to keep it within the rules because he’s a little bit confused as to what he’s doing in there,” Malignaggi said.
“He’s a little bit confused, especially on the inside as you can see on that tape. He’s trying to grab and push the head down. Inside fighting in boxing is very different from inside fighting in mixed martial arts. You can’t grab. You actually have to know what you’re doing on the inside.
“I think Conor has to learn to turn punches over but more than that he needs to learn how to keep it clean. He’s gonna get himself disqualified if he keeps punching behind the head and pushing the head down. He needs to understand that inside fighting in boxing is different than inside fighting in mixed martial arts.”
