The war of words between UFC President Dana White and former Conor McGregor sparring partner Paulie Malignaggi has escalated
While the former two-time world champion had focused his efforts on criticizing McGregor following the public fall out as a result of a leaked photo, it appears Malignaggi now has White firmly in his sights.
“Magic Man” appeared on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani again on Monday. Among the topics discussed was the edited video of the sparring session released by White on Friday:
“I mean, they got the money there so they edited it very well,” Malignaggi said. “There’s a reason it probably took them about 10 days to put that out there. They had to edit it really, really well.”
“Obviously in the video, it’s a push down on my neck. In real time speed, when you’re in the middle of it you don’t know exactly what puts you off balance. Obviously, when I saw the video, I had to kind of analyze it at first and then I realized yeah it’s clearly the push down on my neck. … It’s a dirty move, but you don’t even know how to do it. He’s actually so stupid, he didn’t do it right.”
As for White as a person, it is clear that Malignaggi is not a fan:
“I already know about Dana,” he said. “Dana robs the UFC fighters blind. “I’ve never met an MMA fighter that actually likes Dana or had anything good to say. I’m still looking for one. When Dana comes up in conversation, I’ve yet to hear anybody say, ‘Wow, that guy’s great.’ Or, ‘That guy treats us so good.’ Or, ‘That guy’s a good guy.’ I’m not going to hold my breath, or I might turn blue. So I would expect that.”