UFC President Dana White spoke with the media on Tuesday night after the latest installment of his Contender Series, which aired on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. While speaking with the reporters, he noted that he has “nothing against” Paulie Malignaggi.
The UFC boss revealed that they did offer Showtime some of their infamous sparring footage from the sessions between Malignaggi and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
Malignaggi briefly served as a McGregor sparring partner to help the UFC champion train for his upcoming boxing match against Floyd Mayweather later this month. Malignaggi and White have offered different accounts of how the sparring sessions unfolded.
Following Malignaggi’s sudden exit from the McGregor camp, photos from their sparring sessions surfaced online. Then, White released 22 unflattering seconds of footage on social media.
“I have nothing against Paulie,” White told MMAjunkie and other reporters on Tuesday during a small media scrum. “I don’t even know the guy. I don’t know him. But you know me, man. When you start talking (expletive) – (with) how I get – I actually felt bad for the guy. I actually felt bad for him.”
There is a reason that Showtime didn’t want to use the footage and that is due to Malignaggi being a Showtime commentator and will provide analysis for the Aug. 26 pay-per-view telecast of Mayweather vs. McGregor.
“The last thing I want to do is get in a beef with Showtime, but we gave them a ton of the footage of the (Malignaggi vs. McGregor) sparring, and they denied it – because they didn’t want to make Paulie look bad,” he said. “They had a ton of the sparring footage, and they wanted to use zero (of it).”
“As far as his health goes, he made the right decision to leave that camp,” White said. ” … I think he made the decision for his health, and I think it was the right decision. And I’m not talking (expletive). What do I care? It makes no difference in my life whatsoever.
“This was a deal between Conor and this boxer and whatever. But I’m just telling you he made the right decision for his health, because it was a 12-round straight ass-whooping. It was as bad an ass-whooping as I’ve ever seen.”
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