Paulie Malignaggi Dismisses MMA Fight With Conor McGregor; Still Wants Boxing Match

Former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi is still campaigning for a fight with Conor McGregor, but he’s swatted aside the Irish superstar’s suggestion that they should compete in the UFC under MMA rules.

McGregor had briefly floated the idea during a recent Q&A in Glasgow, while discussing the options he was mulling over for his next fight.

“…Maybe one of these boxing guys…maybe Malignaggi would come over and do an MMA bout,” McGregor told Caroline Pearce.

However, in a subsequent interview with ESNEWS, Malignaggi has remained adamant that a fight between the two former sparring partners would have to take place in the squared circle under boxing rules.

“You talked all this s**t about how you handled it in the cage, now not only are you not releasing the video, but now you want to not box either?” Malignaggi said. “Nah, he doesn’t want it that way. You’ve got to be a man and prove yourself. You’ve got to show what kind of balls you’ve got. It’s easy to talk all that s**t, now since it was so easy, you’ve got to box and you’ve got to prove it. No, we’re not going in a cage because that’s not where you “handled me.” You “handled me” in the ring, right? So now go and prove it.

“He’s got to man up now. He’s got to stand up for what he said or he’s gonna continue to prove what I said about him, that he’s got no balls.”

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.