An old rival from Conor McGregor’s past has offered the UFC icon a surprise return to fighting later this year.
Once venturing to the ring during his combat sports career, McGregor has been offered a stunning comeback to action by a former world champion puncher.
McGregor, who took on Floyd Mayweather in a blockbuster boxing fight back in 2017, suffered an eventual knockout loss to the Michigan veteran.
But in the lead-up to the pairing, McGregor employed the sparring services of Paulie Malignaggi — to much uproar afterwards.
Leaking footage of their gym duels, McGregor has maintained he dropped the former WBA welterweight titleholder — which Malignaggi has refuted time and time again.
Paulie Malignaggi offers Conor McGregor chance to settle their beef in the ring
Given his new deal to fight with BYB Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting, Malignaggi now wants to settle their grudge once and for all — in the form of a gloves off throwdown.
“Conor (McGregor) is a very insecure person, he sold our sparring session in the complete wrong way,” Malignaggi told talkSPORT during a recent interview. “And he is always trying to one-up me.
“…You know he won’t do it [the fight]. He doesn’t have the b—- to do it, he won’t do it in his own promotion of BKFC [Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship].
“It would generate so much money,” He added. “So the winner would take a guaranteed $50k, or the whole pot, whatever that is. I would only do it that way; it’s the punishment he deserves.”
But since their infamous boxing sparring showdown, McGregor has been more than vocal in his pursuit of an actual fight with Malignaggi.
That’s particularly if the New Yorker makes the journey to his stomping grounds.
Conor McGregor offered to fight Paulie Malignaggi under the UFC banner
Losing in his sole boxing outing to the above-mentioned Mayweather, McGregor would return to the UFC in the years since — to some degree.
But once hopeful of eventually facing off with bitter enemy, Malignaggi, the Dublin striker claimed he would happily welcome an MMA pairing with the boxing veteran.
“He [Conor McGregor] said to me, ‘Let’s get him (Malignaggi) in the Octagon’,” John Kavanagh said during an Original Penguin clothing launch back in 2017.
“I said that there was no way that he would fight in MMA. You’ve got to be able to prove yourself in the arena,” he added.