Former WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi has said that MMA fans are a little rough around the edges ahead of his bare knuckle fight with Artem Lobov before BKFC 6 on Saturday.
Malignaggi will fight Lobov in the latest Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship card and he has once again gone after MMA fans after previously stating that the fanbase was stupid.
The American has doubled down on his assertion and said that boxing fans were a bit more domesticated than their mixed martial arts counterparts.
“It’s a weird culture,” said Malignaggi.
“They remind me of wrestling fans except that they’re in a combat sport that’s real and not staged. They’re very cartoonish, very out there. I go back to what I said last month where I blame it on MMA fighters don’t die. When your fighters die your fan base has more smart thinking with the way they talk.
“In MMA the fighters talk about killing this guy and do this and fighting bears and whatever the hell else you guys talk about.
“You see a fighter in a couple of months or you see a fighter in another week with boxing our favourite fighters get killed or end up in a coma sometimes.
“The boxing fan is more domesticated. An MMA fan is more rough around the edges but it’s fine. It’s a different culture.”
Paulie Malignaggi compares "cartoonish" MMA fans to pro wrestling fans ahead of #BKFC6:
"It's a weird culture."
Watch full video: https://t.co/Ij6drcpyw9 pic.twitter.com/H685MkfaJr
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) June 21, 2019
Malignaggi said earlier this month that the stupidity of MMA fans is a big part of why the fight with Lobov was made possible.
“I think of it like, thank god that this fan base in MMA is so f—king stupid that they actually have made this possible. A fight this easy is possible in a main event situation. That’s how I look at it. I look at it in a thankful way.
“From that perspective, I say ‘yeah, I can’t believe I’m here.’ I’ve been in the ring with top fighters, main events inside stadiums and the biggest arenas in the world. I’ve been announced as a world champion. Believe me, it all goes through my mind.
“And now, I’m fighting this guy, who I don’t think has ever fought a guy who’s been a world champion, let alone fight for a title. So I catch myself and say I can only be thankful. There’s no way realistically possible to have a fight this easy against a bum of this level unless there is a fan base this stupid.”
