This is not a drill, folks. Conor McGregor vs Paulie Malignaggi may actually materialise.
The majority of fight fans may rage if Conor McGregor slips on those heavier gloves and steps into the settle his beef with Paulie Malignaggi, but it’s not fight fans who will make that bout a huge event.
There’s a reason why over 4 million people splashed out to watch the Money Fight while only around 150,000 parted with their cash to watch one of the best offerings the UFC had to offer in 2017. Hate to break it to you, hardcore fans, but you’re massively outnumbered.
While seeing McGregor fight Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje or any top lightweight may appeal to MMA fans, a grudge match against Malignaggi is probably going to garner more attention. Average JOE sports fan down the street probably hasn’t a hoop who Edson Barboza is, but they might have heard of Malignaggi after all the exposure he got during the build-up to Floyd Mayweather’s retirement fight.
He's dragged McGregor's mother into it https://t.co/6xcXMZQKsH
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 21, 2017
The reason why the beef between Malignaggi and McGregor has refused to die revolves around that sparring footage. Despite Dana White claiming that he would have no problem releasing the full tape, it still hasn’t seen the light of day.
If the sessions were as one-sided as the McGregor-side claim, releasing it would go a long way to end the interest in seeing a pro bout between the two shit-talkers. Even Joe Cortez, the Hall of Fame referee who oversaw both sparring sessions has suggested a prizefight between the two.
Now, Malignaggi is doing likewise. The two-time world boxing champion recently told FightHype that the wheels are in motion for McGregor vs Malignaggi the boxing match to happen.
“I know Al Haymon’s talking with Dana White. I know they’re speaking so if they want the fight they’ll make it. You know, I don’t need to do all that because Al Haymon makes anything he wants happen. You know? The only way this doesn’t happen — once I spoke to Team Haymon and they told me they were on board to make this fight I knew they only way it wouldn’t happen is if this guy doesn’t have absolutely any balls to make it.”
It's pretty obvious what fight Conor McGregor should take next https://t.co/sCLUt5shYP
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) October 4, 2017
Malignaggi is aware of McGregor’s business acumen. He knows McGregor stands to gain a lot from boxing him. As hard as this may be to accept, he might well be right. This match-up could well rival the completion of the Nate Diaz trilogy in terms of interest. And again, we’re not talking about the interest of fight fans, who are very much in the minority when it comes to the larger PPV events.
“This fight would pay him more, this fight would get him more exposure, this fight is a bigger fight than anything else he has. There’s no more Mayweather fight, this fight is the biggest fight there is. So once they told me that I said ‘alright, the only way this doesn’t happen is if this guy has no balls — which wouldn’t surprise me because he has no balls — but what I’m saying is, the way they’re going to present it to him, it’s going to be presented in a way where he really shouldn’t turn it down. Even if it’s not the next fight, even if it’s an MMA fight in his next fight, there’s no way he should be walking away from this fight unless he has no balls.”
If it does happen, please make it quick, combat sports gods. And for crying out loud, please let it happen after the title unification bout with Ferguson.
