UFC President Dana White posted video Friday of Conor McGregor’s sparring session with former IBF and WBA champion Paulie Malignaggi.
In the first video, McGregor can be seen connecting on several punches to Malignaggi’s head, including a vicious left:
The second post shows Malignaggi falling to the canvas after a flurry of McGregor punches:
Malignaggi had been in McGregor’s camp to help the UFC lightweight champion prepare for his Aug. 26 fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he abruptly left after photos leaked of him on the canvas during a sparring session on Aug. 1.
“I believe Conor and I have a mutual respect inside the ring, earned from each other with some good work over two sparring sessions,” Malignaggi said, according to CBS Sports’ Brian Campbell. “It’s some of the stuff outside the ring and some ways some things were handled in training camp that I didn’t agree with that made me come to this decision.”
On Friday, McGregor addressed Malignaggi’s departure and said he thought it was best for the 36-year-old to take a step back since he was exposing himself to punishment in practice.
“It shows his character in my opinion,” McGregor said, per MMAMania’s Dan Hiergesell. “He was looking for an exit. The spars were not good for him. He took a lot of head trauma. Straight after it we were worried. The sparring partners were actually telling us when he was drove back to the home he was stumbling out of the car after the 12-rounder.”
Malignaggi maintained in a series of tweets that snapshots didn’t paint a clear picture of their sessions.
Rather, he has insisted video be released of the full 12-round affair so fans can see that he got the better of McGregor.
According to Campbell, Malignaggi will still fulfill his duties on Showtime’s pay-per-view broadcast team when the fight is aired Aug. 26.
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