Paulie Malignaggi shares Michael Bisping’s belief that Conor McGregor is handpicking his unwilling opponents.
The bad blood between Conor McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi dates back to 2017 ever since an infamous sparring session. McGregor obtained the services of the former boxing champion to help him prepare for his superfight against Floyd Mayweather. This alliance would soon go off the rails after McGregor leaked footage of him getting the better of Malignaggi during one of their spars.
Speaking of going off the rails, McGregor has continued to make headlines for doing just that, most recently in an alleged assault of Italian DJ Francesco Facchinetti. Michael Bisping noticed a pattern in these incidents where McGregor is reported to be the aggressor in unpredictable altercations. He argued that McGregor is becoming a bully by picking on those who pose no true threat to him.
McGregor’s old nemesis Paulie Malignaggi has noticed the same thing and even used himself as an example to illustrate why the phrase “going off the rails” doesn’t really fit McGregor’s temperament.
“Unbelievable. Unbelievable,” Malignaggi began in an interview with The Schmo before diving into McGregor’s latest controversy. “I don’t know why [Francesco Facchinetti] got hit. No matter how much he disrespected him—and I doubt he disrespected him because I heard he was a fan of Conor—but so was the guy who took the picture with Conor a couple years ago and Conor smashed his iPhone, right? So I don’t think it matters to Conor if the guy’s a fan or the guy’s a hater. I think Conor just goes off the rails.
“No, I’m gonna rephrase that. He doesn’t go off the rails. He knows who he can bully. Because if you’re the kind of person who goes off the rails, you go off the rails and sometimes you go off the rails even when it’s at your detriment and might be (at) your risk.
“For example—and I gotta say it—when I was in his face in Vegas, I said, ‘Where’s your balls? Bring your balls.’ If a guy goes off the rails, he’s gonna hit me there, right? A guy who hits a guy in a pub, a guy who hits the poor DJ, honestly, Franchesco Facchinetti, I mean, I gotta say, this is not a guy who goes off the rails. He purposely does these things. He went after Machine Gun Kelly at the Barclays Center. I feel like if this is a guy who goes off the rails, you go off the rails no matter what. But why were you controlling yourself with me, bro?”
Paulie Malignaggi Blasts Conor McGregor’s Fanbase
At this point, Malignaggi turned his attention McGregor’s fans, who he believes lacks masculinity and self-value if they continue to defend their hero.
“At a certain point, anybody defending this guy, they got a little bit too much pussy in them,” Malignaggi assessed. “Because if you’re defending these actions, you probably got a little too much pussy in you. Because I think you’re trying to vicariously live through a guy that you probably wish you could be like but you can’t. Because that’s the only reason that you could ever defend certain actions, punk actions, of a guy like that.”
Paulie Malignaggi most recently participated in a celebrity boxing bout against stand-up comedian Corey B, this after he lost to McGregor’s close friend and teammate Artem Lobov in a 2019 bare-knuckle boxing match. As for his next venture, if McGregor finds himself embroiled in another controversy, you can expect Malignaggi to again lend some of his time along with his two cents.
Continue Reading Paulie Malignaggi Echoes Bisping’s Analysis Of McGregor The Bully at MMA News.