If publicity was what he was after, Paulie Malignaggi has received more in the past month than he did in his entire boxing career.
Malignaggi may as well get a cut of the pay-per-view revenue for Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather because he’s promoted it more than anyone else involved in the fight, although his methods have divided opinion in the boxing community.
Having joined McGregor’s camp to act as a sparring partner, Malignaggi was furious that a photograph was posted to social media showing him on the canvas of the ring with ‘The Notorious’ standing over him. The Brooklyn boxer called for the release of footage of the session to vindicate his insistence that it was a pushdown that had floored him, rather than a clean knockdown.
An edited clip of the session, seemingly showing a legitimate knockdown following a slick sequence from the Irishman, was soon posted to social media and Malignaggi has basically not stopped tweeting since.
He's in Vegas to cover the bout https://t.co/pzuTJXE6Qd
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 24, 2017
The bad blood boiled over into fight week, when the former WBA welterweight champion confronted McGregor at the grand arrival of the two men involved in this Saturday’s main event.
And shortly after Showtime came out to claim that, in spite of his issues with McGregor, Malignaggi would remain a part of the broadcast team for their coverage of the pay-per-view, an interesting video emerged.
The footage, filmed by FightHype, showed Malignaggi in Mayweather’s gym during fight week and featured an exchange in which Mayweather joked that he had sent Malignaggi into McGregor’s camp to discover his strategy while Malignaggi repeated the word “suckers.”
Soooo, did @FloydMayweather send @PaulMalignaggi into #McGregor's camp as a spy?
(via Fight Hype) pic.twitter.com/pdA0NoPtXc
— Stadium (@Stadium) August 25, 2017
While it should be pointed out that it seems silly to take a stand against a particular commentator’s place in the booth given the circus-like nature of the contest, fans have been calling out for Malignaggi to be pulled from the broadcast team as accusations of bias continue to be levelled at the 36-year-old.
JOE attempted to speak to Malignaggi in Las Vegas on Thursday but were told he would not be doing any more interviews.
Can't believe @ShowtimeBoxing is keeping that clown 🤡 @PaulMalignaggi on as an analyst for the #MayweatherVsMcGregor fight. #ridiculous
— Nevin Hollett (@NevinHollett) August 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/ZPGIFs/status/900891437923008514
How is @ShowtimeBoxing allowing @PaulMalignaggi to call this fight? Admitting to giving floyd conors game plan.he is embarrassing himself
— ed duffy (@duff_digler) August 25, 2017
Hey @ShowtimeBoxing still think this man's objectivity/behavior is still not in question @StephenEspinoza @arielhelwani @PaulMalignaggi pic.twitter.com/j5N57rS2C4
— ciaran (@SirKloppsalot) August 24, 2017
https://twitter.com/gb503/status/900899224622989312
https://twitter.com/UNREALJUST/status/900875708922306560
Paulie Malignaggi should not be calling the May-Mac fight… Sub in @BrendanSchaub instead! @Showtime @ShowtimeBoxing
— Justin Boles (@JbO0613) August 25, 2017
