Efter att ha spenderat cirka en vecka i Conor McGregors träningsläger för att sparras lämnade Paulie Malignaggi efter att foton från sparringen kommit upp på internet. UFCs VD Dana White släppte sedan 22 sekunder, föga smickrande för Malignaggi, video från sparringen.
Dock säger White att det hade kunnat vara ännu mer pinsamt för Malignaggi. Såhär sade han till MMAJunkie under tisdagen:
I have nothing against Paulie. I don’t even know the guy. I don’t know him. But you know me, man. When you start talking shit – (with) how I get – I actually felt bad for the guy. I actually felt bad for him.
Malignaggi är just nu kommentator på Showtime och kommer analysera matchen mellan McGregor och Mayweather. Med det i åtanke är det kanske inte så konstigt att Showtime tackade nej till Whites erbjudande:
The last thing I want to do is get in a beef with Showtime, but we gave them a ton of the footage of the (Malignaggi vs. McGregor) sparring, and they denied it – because they didn’t want to make Paulie look bad. They had a ton of the sparring footage, and they wanted to use zero (of it).
MMAJunkie har sedan dess pratat med Showtime Sports Executive VP & General Manager Stephen Espinoza som säger att beslutet att inte använda materialet inte berodde på Malignaggi.
We did not receive, as Dana said, a ton of sparring footage. We received a few short clips that all together were less than a minute. We were definitely very interested in using them and including them in ‘All Access,’ but we were told that we had to use the entire segment. It wasn’t continuos action. It was a series of spliced together seven-to-eight second clips. It was basically a Conor McGregor highlight reel. We said we wanted to use part of it, not the whole thing, and Conor’s team responded that if that was the case, it would not permit us to use it.
In short. there was a very small amount of footage provided. We were very interested to get it and would have used had Conor’s team permitted us to, but I think Dana was a little bit misinformed, possibly because we were dealing directly with Conor’s team.
Medan det verkar som att resten av videomaterialet inte kommer vara tillgängligt på ett tag så fortsätter White beskriva sparringen som ensidig och säger att det var smart av Malignaggi att lämna.
As far as his health goes, he made the right decision to leave that camp. I think he made the decision for his health, and I think it was the right decision. And I’m not talking shit. What do I care? It makes no difference in my life whatsoever.
This was a deal between Conor and this boxer and whatever. But I’m just telling you he made the right decision for his health, because it was a 12-round straight ass-whooping. It was as bad an ass-whooping as I’ve ever seen.
