Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor branded ‘biggest money heist’ in history by former sparring partner who hates UFC star
Paulie Malignaggi believes Floyd Mayweather’s fight with Conor McGregor was the ‘biggest money heist’ in boxing history.
The former two-weight world champion famously helped McGregor prepare for his 2017 crossover boxing bout, only for footage of their sparring sessions to be publicly leaked.
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One clip shows Malignaggi seemingly being dropped by the former dual-weight UFC champion, but the American has always insisted he wasn’t knocked down by McGregor, who has since become his bitter enemy.
The pair clashed ahead of Mayweather’s final professional fight which came to a halt in the tenth round when he stopped an exhausted McGregor on his feet.
Malignaggi even mocked McGregor by posting a mean meme after he broke his foot during a trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021.
In May, the 42-year-old claimed the UFC superstar’s lone boxing match, which generated 4.3million pay-per-view buys and saw McGregor walk away with $100m (£80m), is the ‘biggest money heist’ ever.
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Malignaggi said: “I couldn't imagine how ridiculous a fight between Conor and Floyd would be until I got in the ring with Conor and saw how terrible he was.
"I said to myself ‘Wow, this is really going to be ridiculous.’ And it was. Coming out of that spar I thought this has got to be the biggest money heist in the history of money.
“This guy is so terrible and he's going to fight Mayweather, probably the best boxer in the history of the sport. Even though he's retired, Mayweather is going to beat this guy with his eyes closed. And that's basically how it went. He played with them.”
Malignaggi claims he spoke with Mayweather in the immediate aftermath of his 50th professional win and ‘Money’ claimed he carried McGregor.
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He added: “I remember I went to the dressing room to talk to Floyd after the fight, I said ‘Floyd, why weren't you cutting him off?’ Because that's where I gave Conor a lot of trouble cutting off the ring.
"Floyd said, ‘I had to make the fight last, I couldn't just stop him in a few rounds, and if I cut the ring I'm going to end up stopping him in a few rounds.’
"And now I understand the genius of Floyd because if you keep just blowing these guys out too fast then no one is going to buy the exhibitions.
Mayweather has fought six exhibition bouts since retiring and has surprisingly been pushed the eight-round distance by YouTuber Logan Paul, Geordie Shore star Aaron Chalmers, and his unheralded sparring partner Don Moore.
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