Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi said he cringed while watching UFC superstar Conor McGregor suffering a submission defeat during his recent return to the octagon.
The two fighters have been traded words for well over a year - taking shots at each other during interviews and on social media.
Last August at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, McGregor made his professional boxing debut - and suffered a ten round TKO defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. - who was coming off a near two-year layoff.
And to prepare for that fight, McGregor hired Malignaggi as a sparring partner.
The pairing turned sour - with Malignaggi leaving the camp after claiming that McGregor and his handlers were leaking photos and footage of their sparring sessions.
Earlier this month, McGregor made his return to the UFC for the first time in nearly two years - and he was submitted by his division rival Khabib Nurmagomedov.
According to Malignaggi, McGregor did not "go out like a man" in the loss to Khabib.
“We win or we lose. That’s fine. And we go out as fighters, we go out as men, we go out with dignity. That’s what competition is. But go out like a man. Don’t look to make contracts in the middle of the fight like ‘It was just business. Don’t hurt me. It was just business.’ You p*ssy. I had my face falling off against Cotto,” Malignaggi said to IFL TV.
“I would rather you chop my head off than to give you the satisfaction of me crying to you like a bitch in the middle of the fight, when we still got to fight. When we still got to come out the next round. You p*ssy motherf***er. It was unbelievable what a p*ssy move that was.
“I cringed. And I don’t even like the guy, and I cringed for him when I saw that audio on my phone on social media when somebody sent it to me. Like ‘Ugh, God, what a p*ssy. Holy sh-t, he’s more of a p*ssy than even I could have thought. Because I didn’t think he would say it out loud to the opponent. Who begs their opponent to take it easy on them in the middle of a fight? I haven’t heard of something like that in my life, to be honest. That was a first for me.”