Paulie Malignaggi announced his return to the fight game by taking aim at Conor McGregor.
While the pair have never crossed paths in a professional setting, while ‘The Notorious’ was preparing to take on Floyd Mayweather, he did some training with ‘The Magic Man’.
McGregor and Malignaggi shared an infamous spar, with both men claiming they dominated the other.
While, almost a decade has passed since that day, the former two-weight boxing world champion still launches verbal bombs at the UFC icon at every given opportunity.
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Paulie Malignaggi slams Conor McGregor as he signs with BKB
Yesterday, Paulie Malignaggi took to social media to confirm his major return, but not to traditional boxing, rather bare-knuckle boxing, under the BKB banner.
With big ambitions, he made it clear that he’s willing to fight absolutely everyone, something he claims Conor McGregor isn’t willing to do.
In a video uploaded to Instagram, he said: “I’m here to announce I’m doing a three-fight deal with BKB, and I am back, ready to fight in bare-knuckle fighting.
“I could easily use my position to jump right back into a title fight, but that’s not what I’m going to do. I respect the fighters too much, especially here at BKB, there’s really good contenders in the junior middleweight division. I wanna fight one of those top contenders, and earn my shot at the champion.
“There’s some guys who come to this sport with a big position and want to jump the line right away, or at least they talk that way, big talkers like Conor McGregor, doesn’t have the b—- to fight any of the champions in his promotion or this promotion.
“I’m not that guy, I wanna earn my shot, I know I’ve got a big position, I know when this announcement gets around to the contenders, they’re all gonna want a piece of me — I’m fine with that.
“I’m a competitor, I’m a contender, and I’m here to show even at 44-years-old, I’ve still got the goods and I’m chasing that title for BKB.”
What happened when Paulie Malignaggi went to war with Ricky Hatton
McGregor isn’t the only person Malignaggi has verbally sparred with over the years.
In the build-up to a highly-anticipated match-up with Ricky Hatton he relentlessly trash-talked ‘The Hitman’.
However, when they got into the ring, he had to deal with the English warrior’s fury.
In an exciting contest, Hatton managed to stop Malignaggi.