Ex-boxing world champ Paulie Malignaggi has promised to "hospitalize" hated rival and former sparring partner Conor McGregor and send him home "broke", challenging the Irish UFC star to a 'winner takes all' boxing match.
Italian-American Malignaggi, who held world titles in two weight classes in his ring heyday, just as did McGregor in the UFC, insists there is no other fight the Dubliner can make worth more money than with himself, and claims the 30-year-old's career is “coming to an end”, characterized by desperate attempts to stay relevant, and instead challenging McGregor to a fight in which the winner would walk away with both purses.
"I think Conor knows his time is coming to an end. He has become the Pinata of combat sports, just like I predicted he would once he reached this level. He just wasn't going to be able to hack it," Malignaggi said, speaking exclusively on the 'Off the Brawl' podcast.
Brooklynite Malignaggi, who held the IBF and WBA belts at light-welterweight and welterweight respectively, called on big time boxing promoters Al Haymon and Eddie Hearn to make the fight, imploring McGregor to fight a credible opponent instead of targeting smaller, lesser known fighters such as Tenshin Nasukawa, who was demolished by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in one round on New Year's Eve.
"So I think now that [McGregor] realizes it's happening - he's trying all that he can to keep himself relevant as best he can - even going as far as calling out the Japanese featherweight Nasukawa.
"There's no other fight he can make that he makes more money than he does fighting me - the problem is, he gets beaten by me.
Also on rt.com 'Don't be b*tchin': McGregor cryptically denies 'it's only business' line to Khabib during fight"In boxing I'd be interested in it - I'd love to do a 'winner takes all' fight just so he can go for free but I don't think he'd ever agree to that. I would love to fight Conor McGregor in a 'winner takes all' fight in a boxing match, I would absolutely love it because I would beat him to a pulp, I would hospitalise him and I'd make him go home broke too."
The two bitter foes have recently resumed an online war of words, originally stemming from footage of a now-infamous sparring session which seemed to show McGregor knocking Malignaggi down and that the latter argues was a push. The sparring was in preparation for McGregor's boxing debut against ring legend Floyd Mayweather Jr.
‘The Notorious’ threw shade at Malignaggi in an Instagram post of their confrontation, accusing the ‘Magic Man’ of ‘bitching’ over the footage, and the throwing shade at Khabib Nurmagomedov, denying his much-publicized and parodied “it’s only business” line, allegedly muttered to the Russian at the end of round 3 of their October fight.
Never one to be outdone in the trash-talking stakes, motormouth Malignaggi astonishingly called McGrgeor a "cokehead lush" with "absolutely no balls" while poking fun at McGregor's submission loss to Khabib.
Meanwhile, Dagestan native Khabib, who defended his UFC lightweight strap in that fight, became embroiled in his own keyboard warrior row with Nate Diaz, who claimed he "slapped" Khabib and accused Khabib's team of failing to back up their fighter.
Also on rt.com 'We smashed your team that night you punk': Khabib bites back at Nate Diaz insultRefusing to back down, Khabib posted a brief clip of the confrontation which appears to show a chair being thrown at Diaz. "You was hiding behind security and ran away coward, it’s clear on the video. We just smashed your team that night you punk," he writes. Diaz responded by telling Khabib to "be real" and that the Russian "know[s] what happened."