Paulie Malignaggi: Conor McGregor's A Quitter, Has No Balls!

By Keith Idec

Paulie Malignaggi took to Twitter on Sunday to criticize Conor McGregor in the wake of McGregor’s loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The unbeaten Nurmagomedov made McGregor submit in the fourth round of their UFC lightweight title fight Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It marked McGregor’s first mixed martial arts match in nearly two years and his first fight of any kind since Floyd Mayweather Jr. stopped him in the 10th round of their 154-pound boxing match 13½ months ago at T-Mobile Arena.

Maliginaggi and McGregor engaged in a prolonged public feud after Malignaggi sparred against McGregor as he prepared to make his pro boxing debut against Mayweather. Malignaggi took exception to McGregor’s team releasing what Malignaggi said was doctored footage of one of their sparring sessions, in which McGregor got the better of Malignaggi.

The 37-year-old Malignaggi, a retired two-division champion and an analyst for Showtime, clearly enjoyed watching Nurmagomedov make McGregor tap out after applying a rear-naked choke.

Malignaggi attached the hashtags “#noballs” and “#quitter” in a Tweet directed at McGregor (@TheNortoriousMMA). Malignaggi also attached an emoji (smiling, with tears of joy), as well as a photo of Nurmagomedov choking out McGregor and a shot of Malignaggi laughing, with Mayweather’s arm around him.

McGregor-Nurmagomedov was touted as the biggest event in UFC history because it generated a lot of mainstream buzz and broke a UFC record by producing roughly $17 million in ticket sales. UFC 229 was marred, however, by a disgraceful post-match melee in which Nurmagomedov leaped out of the Octagon to fight one of McGregor’s trainers, Dannis Dillon, and an unidentified Nurmagomedov supporter assaulted McGregor while the Irish superstar was trying to recover inside the cage from his submission defeat.

Before Saturday night, the 30-year-old McGregor hadn’t competed in UFC since he defeated Eddie Alvarez by second-round technical knockout in November 2016 at Madison Square Garden. McGregor lost by submission Saturday night for the fourth time in his 10-year MMA career.

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