Conor McGregor talks and gives his side of what happened in sparring Paulie Malignaggi ahead of the Irishman’s fight with Floyd Mayweather.

Sparring is sparring and stories that emanate from within gym walls should perhaps be best left there but alas, in boxing they always tend to come out ahead of big fights.

It’s been going on for years and years, in truth.

New Yorker Paulie Malignaggi faomusly quit as a sparring partner for Conor McGregor in recent weeks and came out swinging verbally – branding the Irishman cheap and not treating his sparring partners well.

On the sessions themselves he was less than complimentary to McGregor too – but the Irishman has a rather different version of events.

Speaking to journalist Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, McGregor responded by saying:

“He’s a guy that’s at the end of his career. I get the feeling he feels that the boxing game has betrayed him. Now he’s retired, he’s done. I mean I don’t know what he expected coming in here after speaking what he was speaking. I mean, the things that he was saying.”

He added:

“And even still I didn’t disrespect him. I only released one picture. I didn’t release no connecting to the face shots. I didn’t release no footage of him getting slapped around – because he got slapped around Ariel. He got badly, badly slapped around. He was knocked down. The ropes kept him up multiple times. He was badly concussed. The sparring partners that were in the house were worried about him that night saying he was incoherent, he’s stumbling. It didn’t go good for him. So it is what it is.”

This footage emerged over night showing Malignaggi hit the floor in sparring with McGregor.