Paulie Malignaggi, forne IBF och WBO mästare, berättar i en intervju på ”Big Brown Breakdown” med Brendan Schaub om sin sparring med UFCs mästare i lättvikt Conor McGregor inför dennes match mot Floyd Mayweather. Såhär säger Malignaggi om Conors slagkraft:
He’s not a weak puncher. People are dying for me to say, ‘he hits hard, oh, this big left hand’ – if Conor hits you, you’re gonna feel it. He’s a grown man.
And I’d say he’s an above average puncher. I could feel with the 16 oz. gloves that if he lands a shot with 10 oz. gloves, he’ll probably get your attention. Is it ‘Oh my God’ power? No. I mean, ‘Oh my God’ power is very rare… I’ve sparred thousands of rounds in my life, I’ve sparred probably hundreds of people in my life. People that I’ve sparred, because I can’t give you the people that I fought because I fought them with 8 oz. gloves, but out of the people that I’ve sparred, that had ‘Oh my God’ power, it’s probably only a handful.
McGregor, som har avslutat flera av sina motståndare via slag, bland andra Jose Aldo och Eddie Alvarez, har tidigare sagt att det är hans teknik som gör honom speciell, inte nödvändigtvis hans råa styrka.
Efter sin 13-sekunders knockout av Aldo sade han ”Precision beats power and timing beats speed”. Även om Malignaggi kanske inte skulle säga att McGregor är en av de mer hårt slående fighters han sparrats med, så verkar han ha samma filosofi när det gäller McGregors effektiva striking.
Listen, Conor doesn’t have that kind of power, but Conor’s got power that if it lands with the small gloves, you’re probably going down, you’re probably going to get rocked.
It’s respectable power, it’s respectable pop, and that’s really all you need… the key is being able to land it cleanly. Because if you’re able to land it cleanly, yeah, Conor will get your attention and Conor will do the damage. He’s gotta be able to land it cleanly, that’s the trick here.
