If publicity was what he was after, Paulie Malignaggi has received more in the past month than he did in his entire boxing career.
Malignaggi may as well get a cut of the pay-per-view revenue for Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather because he's promoted it more than anyone else involved in the fight, although his methods have divided opinion in the boxing community.
Having joined McGregor's camp to act as a sparring partner, Malignaggi was furious that a photograph was posted to social media showing him on the canvas of the ring with 'The Notorious' standing over him. The Brooklyn boxer called for the release of footage of the session to vindicate his insistence that it was a pushdown that had floored him, rather than a clean knockdown.
An edited clip of the session, seemingly showing a legitimate knockdown following a slick sequence from the Irishman, was soon posted to social media and Malignaggi has basically not stopped tweeting since.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/900851211309645828
The bad blood boiled over into fight week, when the former WBA welterweight champion
confronted McGregor at the grand arrival of the two men involved in this Saturday's main event.
And shortly after
Showtime came out to claim that, in spite of his issues with McGregor, Malignaggi would remain a part of the broadcast team for their coverage of the pay-per-view, an interesting video emerged.
The footage, filmed by
FightHype, showed Malignaggi in Mayweather's gym during fight week and featured an exchange in which Mayweather joked that he had sent Malignaggi into McGregor's camp to discover his strategy while Malignaggi repeated the word "suckers."
https://twitter.com/WatchStadium/status/900876577516408832
While it should be pointed out that it seems silly to take a stand against a particular commentator's place in the booth given the circus-like nature of the contest, fans have been calling out for Malignaggi to be pulled from the broadcast team as accusations of bias continue to be levelled at the 36-year-old.
JOE attempted to speak to Malignaggi in Las Vegas on Thursday but were told he would not be doing any more interviews.
https://twitter.com/NevinHollett/status/900896700801441792
https://twitter.com/ZPGIFs/status/900891437923008514
https://twitter.com/duff_digler/status/900879589928579072
https://twitter.com/SirKloppsalot/status/900818099309604865
https://twitter.com/gb503/status/900899224622989312
https://twitter.com/UNREALJUST/status/900875708922306560
https://twitter.com/JbO0613/status/900896734469029888
