Malignaggi: McGregor Should Take a Hike, Retire, Not Fight at All

By Keith Idec

Paulie Maliginaggi offered Conor McGregor some advice Monday.

Malignaggi doesn’t just think the UFC superstar should keep away from boxing. McGregor’s rival believes he should retire from fighting altogether.

The former two-division champion was asked about boxing McGregor following a press conference to promote “ULTIMATE BOXXER,” a British company that’ll stage eight-man, one-night elimination boxing tournaments.

Malignaggi wants to box McGregor over a lingering disagreement about how their sparring sessions went when Malignaggi helped McGregor prepare for his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“He got smacked around, so he’s not gonna go near me,” Malignaggi told Sky Sports. “Trust me. He’s not gonna go near me. I don’t think he should fight at all. I really don’t. I think if he’s smart, he probably should just take a hike, you know? He’s not a very good boxer and in MMA, he’s gotta fight some pretty tough contenders.

“So unless he vacates and takes on a lesser MMA contender, which I could see him doing – vacate the title and then he could take a choice of a lesser contender, I wouldn’t fight I was him.”

Ireland’s McGregor, 29, lost his boxing debut to Mayweather by 10th-round technical knockout August 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He hasn’t competed in MMA since November 2016, but McGregor still owns the UFC’s lightweight title and is expected to return to the Octagon later this year.

The 37-year-old Malignaggi, an analyst for Showtime, doesn’t believe Mayweather would fight McGregor in an MMA match, despite the retired Mayweather’s recent teases.

“I think he’s just pulling everybody’s chain, so to speak,” Malignaggi said. “Especially Conor McGregor fans, because they’re so mad that their guy got beat up. They’re so mad that their guy got smacked around the ring August 26th, so they’re like, ‘We wanna see Conor do it back to Mayweather.’

“So Mayweather will give you a tease. But there’s no highlight package here. You get to watch the full 10 rounds and he got smacked around, and you can watch that all the times you want. But I don’t think Floyd’s going in the cage. I think he’s just jerking their chains a little bit.”

Brooklyn’s Malignaggi (36-7, 8 KOs) announced his retirement from boxing following an eighth-round knockout loss to England’s Sam Eggington on March 4 at 02 Arena in London.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.