Retired boxer Paulie Malignaggi is expected to make his bare knuckle boxing debut this coming June at a Bare Knuckle FC event, facing rival Artem Lobov.
One thing Malignaggi believes is that if he can put Lobov into a coma, it would bring forth a long anticipated bout with former two division UFC champion Conor McGregor.
“Once I put his boy in a coma, he’s gonna want to fight me,” Malignaggi said to Helen Yee of Yahoo Sports (via Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “If he’s any kind of man, he would. So once I do that in June, he will want to fight me, but the conversation doesn’t even get initiated unless 12 rounds of sparring, unedited, the way it actually happens, comes out. If it doesn’t, then Conor doesn’t even start the conversation.”
McGregor and Malignaggi’s rivalry began when the Irishman was training for The Money Fight, as Malignaggi left his camp after McGregor’s team posted images on social media of the retired boxer being dropped by the UFC star.
Malignaggi also thanks God for the dumbest fight fans in the world for making his bout against Lobov possible.
“I thought it was an exciting fight, but honestly, it made me wonder how I’m not gonna hurt this guy,” Malignaggi said. “I have to really wonder, I have to really be worried that I’m gonna hurt this guy badly. He’s very, very limited. It was a pitiful, pitiful display. It was exciting, but it was a pitiful display of combat sports ability and skills. The reason I was uncharacteristically quiet [afterwards] is because I thought the promotion was definitely ruined. I thought that now people would know just how bad he is, just how limited he is, and no one would want to watch this fight. But thank God for the dumbest fans in the world. Mixed Martial Arts fans always come through, and when I started seeing the comments on social media I thought, ‘Thank God they exist because if not for these people, this fight would not be able to sell.’ Anybody with a brain understands this is a very big mismatch.”
There has been no word from McGregor or his team yet as to whether or not the UFC star plans on attending the Malignaggi/Lobov fight this June.
