Jeff Mayweather was not impressed with UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s sparring footage against former two-weight boxing champ Paulie Malignaggi.
“The Notorious One” is set to make his professional boxing debut against the undefeated 49-0 Mayweather, who is coming out of retirement in attempt to earn his 50th consecutive victory inside the squared circle. The pair will collide in a one-on-one, 12 round bout at 154 pounds live on Showtime pay-per-view (PPV) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada later this month (Sat. August 26, 2017).
Recently, UFC President Dana White took to Instagram to release footage of McGregor sparring with Paulie Malignaggi at the UFC Performance Institute before their falling out. The footage seemed to show what looked like a knockdown for McGregor after he landed a nice shot on Malignaggi’s head. Though whether or not it was actually a knockdown or a shove has been a highly controversial topic, it still provides the Mayweather camp something to study ahead of their collision with the Irishman.
Jeff Mayweather recently spoke to Fight Hub TV to discuss the footage, and was clearly not impressed by what he saw from the mixed martial arts (MMA) star (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“Do you see that? You see him land one punch but do you see all the other bulls**t that goes with it? Don’t get me wrong, that much is true, but you’ve got to realize, Paulie didn’t come back to boxing to box again. He didn’t do what Floyd did. Plus, he’s not Floyd, so watching that means nothing because no matter what he did to Paulie, he’s not gonna do to Floyd.
“It looks like it was a knockdown and it was a push. It was the punch and then a little push at the end. It was a little push at the end but still, even if it wasn’t a push, still, this guy right here, he’s not Floyd Mayweather so it doesn’t matter.”
While Mayweather understands White’s move to release the video was an attempt to hype the fight, he also believes it was a bit of a mistake for the UFC boss. Heading into the fight one of the key advantages in McGregor’s corner was the element of surprise, which is now somewhat diminished given that there is film for Team Mayweather to break down and analyze:
“That’s part of the politics of boxing and it’s also part of the salesman, it’s part of the build up. Realistically, by showing that much of what Conor’s doing, they actually expose what he’s really capable of. It’s worse because he’s fighting a Paulie that’s out of shape.
“I’m not impressed. He was in there with a guy that’s been retired. Paulie’s not getting in shape for him. You could look and see that Paulie was still fat. He just went in there with a guy that, don’t get me wrong, he’s much younger than Paulie and he’s in shape. He should out-work Paulie. . . Ain’t nobody ever seen Floyd fatigued.”
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