What goes down in sparring, stays in sparring.
Paulie Malignaggi knows the score.
Malignaggi is certainly the most high-profile boxer drafted in by Conor McGregor ahead of his upcoming super-fight with Floyd Mayweather and work has already got underway between ‘The Notorious’ and the former two-weight world champion.
Malignaggi touched down in Las Vegas earlier this week and spent Thursday night putting the Irishman through his paces in what was likely McGregor’s most testing sparring session to date.
But you wouldn’t have thought it was all that difficult judging by the image that McGregor chose to post on Friday.
The reigning UFC lightweight champion allowed the world a glimpse of what went down between the ropes by posting a photograph of him taunting Malignaggi with both hands behind his back.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWzc2i3gQek/?taken-by=thenotoriousmma&hl=en
McGregor insisted that there was no love lost between him and Malignaggi just days before he shared the ring with the 36-year-old. During last week’s promotional world tour, McGregor declared:
“Paulie talked a load of shit… He’s being brought in to spar, and he’ll answer to what he’s been saying. Then we’ll go from there after that. We’re going to have a knock in the gym.”
All credit to Malignaggi, however, because he knows that his role is to help McGregor improve and he would not rise to requests to divulge any information about what went down in Thursday’s session.
Work is work, the respect comes before and after, it does make the Boxing more fun to talk shit and showboat, we both did our share lol. https://t.co/UqauOu7aRE
— Paul Malignaggi (@PaulMalignaggi) July 21, 2017
Good rounds last night with @TheNotoriousMMA. My code is sparring details stay in the gym. Look forward to helping him get ready for 8/26.
— Paul Malignaggi (@PaulMalignaggi) July 21, 2017
