Much has been made of boxer Paul Malignaggi leaving Conor McGregor’s training camp as the UFC star prepares for a showdown with Floyd Mayweather.
Both aides have offered their side of the story, with pictures surfacing of McGregor standing over a fallen Malignaggi at the center of the friction between the two.
McGregor’s SBG teammate Tiernan Bradley gave his candid take on the matter, being one of the very few flies on the walls of Straight Blast Gym.
“On the Thursday, we were getting changed after training at the UFC performance institute and that’s when Paulie saw the photo for the first time. He was clearly pissed off, showing us his phone, saying ‘what the (expletive)?’ or whatever,” Bradley said.
It was weird though because after that Conor came into the changing room but Paulie didn’t mention it, even though they did speak.
We were in the car home from training to get food and Paulie was like ‘drop me back to the house.’ You could see he was hanging his head, thinking about things. He was in a bad mood.
We left him to the house and when we came back he was gone – we were only away about 45 minutes. He must’ve been straight in, suitcase packed, out the door.
When you join a Conor McGregor camp, you know pictures are going to be released every day. Sometimes they might not be the most flattering.”
Malignaggi quickly came to his own defense after the photo of him appearing to be knocked down by McGregor, instead insisting that it was the result of a push.
However, McGregor’s camp left the photo up to interpretation, as it looks like a knockdown without any context.
McGregor and his camp have remained quiet on the issue, only cryptically stating they needed a new sparring partner following Malignaggi’s abrupt departure.
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