Paulie Malignaggi has been continuing to discuss his first sparring session with Conor McGregor over the past few days, and in an interview with Jim Rome on Wednesday he got down to the issue of ‘The Notorious’ Irishman’s much vaunted punching power.
“It’s definitely above average,” Malignaggi told Rome. “I wouldn’t say it’s ‘oh my god’ power. There’s what I call ‘oh my god’ power when somebody hits you even in sparring and you’re like oh my god. Like wow, this guy really hits hard. I’ve been in with guys, even in this past year I sparred a guy named Amir Imam, who’s a 140-pound contender in Miami and I remember thinking wow this guy’s got oh my god power and he’s 140-pound contender in boxing.
“Oh my god power’s very rare.”
In MMA competition, 18 of McGregor’s 21 career victories have come via T/KO, suggesting that he is a heavy-hitter, but Malignaggi suggests that his knockout ability might suffer a little when he swaps from 4 ounce MMA gloves to 10 ounce boxing gloves.
“If he lands a good shot on you and he’s landing with the small gloves, he will hurt you but it’s not ‘oh my god’ power where every time he’s touching you it’s like my goodness, this is very uncomfortable.
“It’s not that kind of power, but it’s good enough.”
During the interview, Malignaggi also indicated that after getting to trade shots with McGregor in the ring, he still favors Floyd Mayweather to win on August 26th in Las Vegas.
“He showed me that he’s at least serious about this. I can’t say based on a sparring session that I’m going to pick him to win this fight.”
