If you had to describe Conor McGregor in just one word, what would you choose?
Considering the polarising nature of Conor McGregor, it might be easier to ask you to narrow it down to ‘c’ words.
For those of you whose minds aren’t in the gutter and didn’t take the low-hanging fruit, what word did you go for? Champion? Celebrity? Confident? Conceited? Charismatic?
Whatever adjective you used to describe ‘the Notorious,’ we bet it wasn’t ‘cheap’. That is, unless you’re name is Paulie Malignaggi.
The head says he hasn't got a hope, but the heart… https://t.co/NxD0ERQE5P
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 28, 2017
Malignaggi and McGregor aren’t on the best of terms at the moment. The former two-weight world boxing champion sparred 20 intense rounds with ‘the Notorious,’ but quit the camp after accusing Team McGregor of deliberately leaking photos to boost their man and make him look bad.
Now the boxer’s on the smear campaign, and in a recent interview with Fox 5’s Sports Xtra, he claimed that McGregor was a bit cheap for his liking.
“My problems isn’t just with the sparring. My problem is the way he treats people, the way he treats the other sparring partners. He’s on the bit on the cheap side. You have a hundred million dollar fight, you can splurge a little bit more on training camp, especially the way you treat the sparring partners and the living quarters and what not.”
Prepare for the worst https://t.co/ftswaI9p9b
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 4, 2017
When you see McGregor don the gold watches, drive the luxury Rolls Royces and drape the ridiculous fur coats around his shoulders, you don’t get the feeling he wants to give off the vibe that he’s tight with his funds. However, that’s exactly the image Malignaggi is trying to paint of the Dubliner to the media.
“I put it like this, I’ve never been part of a 100 million dollar fight, but I’ve been part of multiple fights where there’s been million dollar purses in there. So once you’ve been part of 7 and 8 figure purses — 9 figures in this case — you understand how to treat this training camp and how to properly budget it without being too cheap, but without overspending. There’s people involved, and there’s a team involved, and you need to take care of them too.”
As if it wasn’t hammered home enough, Malignaggi bludgeoned us to death with the obvious irony over the public’s perception of McGregor vs the side he is claiming to have seen.
“And I’ve never seen such a cheap guy in my life, in all my training camps. I was blown away with this guy, with the treatment he’s given everybody. But he made sure he rented himself a Lamborghini in Vegas, which was like ‘what is it about? You don’t respect anybody else? I mean these are the people helping you. Is it about status with you?’ I don’t understand what it was.”
Don’t expect this beef to end anytime soon. It sounds like these two warriors are only getting started.
