With three weeks left until fight night, Paulie Malignaggi has decided to cut his time short with Conor McGregor’s training camp. This all started after a recent photo of him supposedly being knocked down in sparring surfaced online.
“Magic Man” explained the reasons for his decision in a lengthy social media post, basically implying that it was about the leaked photos, as well as some apparent misconducts during camp. He did, however, refuse to delve into any specifics.
I just wanted to clear the air. I am leaving the McGregor training camp today. I came with best intentions & intended to help out. Just the chance to be part of such a big event in this capacity excited me.
I believe Conor & I have a mutual respect inside the ring, earned from each other with some good work over 2 sparring sessions. It’s some of the stuff outside the ring and some ways some things were handled in training camp that I didn’t agree with that made me come to this decision. It’s not my place to dictate terms in a training camp that is not mine, but it’s my place to decide if I want to be part of it. I will not give away anything tactical that I saw in 2 sparring sessions with Conor.
For what it’s worth, they have my word. The things that upset me though I will speak about in time. I wish team McGregor well in the rest of their preparations and look forward to being back in Vegas to work fight week on Showtime.
In another phone interview with ESPN.com on Thursday, Malignaggi added that things have also gotten out of hand during camp.
“I wanted to be part of this event, but I didn’t want to become the story, and that’s what this has turned into. I won’t release any information about his game plan or what he’s working on — I wouldn’t do that. But this has become a fiasco. It’s a circus.”
Mayweather vs. McGregor takes place at the T-Mobile Arena on August 26th, and will be broadcasted live via Showtime.
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