McGregor hitting Malignaggi (phot via BoxingScene.com)

By FCF Staff

Many people have been wondering if Conor McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi will battle in a pro-bout at some point, and now the latter’s calling for just that.

Malignaggi has been in the news, front-and-center, after he announced he was leaving McGregor’s camp, for the UFC champ’s August 26th fight with Floyd Mayweather. Since then, the decorated boxer has accused McGregor and his team of mistreating him, and misrepresenting how their second, sparring session went.

Late last week, footage of the two sparring was posted by UFC President Dana White, including video of Malignaggi going to the mat. The latter has repeatedly argued, however, that he was pushed, not knocked down.

The retired, former boxing champ called into latest “MMA Hour”, and had this to say about McGregor (quote via MMA Fighting):

“He (McGregor) constantly puts me in the press with these edited videos, edited pictures and whatnot,” said Malignaggi. “Now, it’s picked up a ton of momentum. So yeah. So now the bad blood is there. Now, we’ve gotta fight.”

While discussing whether he believes a fight with McGregor could materialize, Malignaggi stated the following:

“I don’t know. It’s not up to me. Right now, I’m focused on how he looks against Mayweather. If he looks like dog sh-t against Mayweather, I don’t think anybody is gonna want to see him box again. So first and foremost, we have to see what happens the 26th, how it happens the 26th as well.”

Mayweather – McGregor will be hosted by the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.