Paulie Malignaggi har en framgångsrik boxningskarriär bakom sig men för mma-fans är han mest känd för att ha varit sparringpartner til Conor McGregor inför dennes boxningsmatch mot Floyd Mayweather samt det kommande mötet i Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) med McGregors vän och träningspartner Artem Lobov (1-0 BKFC).
Attackerar mma
Nyligen attackerade Malignaggi mma-communityt för vad, enligt honom, är en felaktigt representation av boxning och huruvida mma eller boxning är den farligare sporten.
Under presskonferensen inför BKFC 6 pratade Malignaggi med FightHype.com där han ville förklara hur mma-fans har fått det hela om bakfoten.
“Lobov and the mixed martial arts community have really disrespected my sport in a lot of ways; boxing, saying that we fight with pads on and it’s not a real fighting sport and what not, but we have all the deaths.
We have more of the deaths by a long shot. We have more of the permanent damage by a long shot. This is not to diminish the danger of mixed martial arts or any other combat sport, but there is a reason why boxing has more deaths and more traumatic brain injuries in one night because we are the most dangerous combat sport.”
Hardy ger svar på tal
Den före detta UFC-titelutmanaren och numera analytikern, Dan Hardy, är inte den som sitter tyst när hans sport attackeras. Under en podcast, SiriusXM, delar Hardy sina åsikter i frågan med oss.
“It disappoints me that he is grouping all MMA fans together. We are not all grouped together, we are not poking fun at boxing because they wear pads, we do respect it and it’s often been boxing that has drawn the ‘us vs you’ argument because of the rise of MMA.”
Han kritiserar sättet som Malignaggi tycks skryta om skador och dödsfall som någonting positivt och tycker att detta istället bör åtgärdas.
“To claim the deaths in boxing is ridiculous, to say we’re [boxing] the toughest sport because we have the most deaths is silly. Maybe what we should do is analyze why there are deaths in boxing and see if we can fix it, and part of the problem maybe is [that] they are wearing padded hands.
Now Paulie is going to get a very different look when he’s bare-knuckle boxing cause he’s going to break both his hands on Artem Lobov’s head. He’s got soft hands and no punching power as it is … He’s also set the bar very high now because if he goes into this fight against Artem, he breaks both his hands and he can’t continue to fight what’s he going to do, tough guy it through?”
Hardy avslutar om den bredare aspekten av mma:
“What we’re interested in is the most efficient and effective style of fighting. It’s not a comparison with boxing, it never has been. I appreciate the art of boxing, but it is a small element of the whole of combat sports and it has been so refined that it is not really very realistic in real combat.”
Vad tycker du om Hardys kritik av Malignaggi? Håller du med Hardy?
