Paulie Malignaggi explains why Conor McGregor is having difficulty progressing as a boxer

Paulie Malignaggi is no longer a part of UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor‘s training for undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. The former two-division boxing champ made his exit feeling as though he’d been unfairly represented by McGregor and his team.

Since his departure from Team McGregor, Malignaggi has repeatedly blasted the Irishman on social media. He’s also had plenty to say about McGregor during his media appearances.

Speaking on Fox 5’s Sports Xtra on Sunday night, Malignaggi once again went off on McGregor, this time suggesting that the UFC champ’s arrogance is hindering his efforts to improve as a boxer.

“My problem with Conor is his arrogance,” Malignaggi said on the show (h/t Peter Carroll of MMAFighting.com).“His arrogance is to the point where he can’t progress. He can’t learn. He just wants a bunch of yes men around him.”

“He doesn’t want to be told that he’s doing something wrong,” Malignaggi continued, drawing on his time in the gym with McGregor. “He doesn’t want to be told that he needs to make progress, so that he needs to change certain things.

“Whatever he’s doing, he just wants to be told how great he’s doing.”

When we last saw McGregor in the Octagon, he authored an artful knockout of Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC lightweight title. Given that he still owned the UFC featherweight title at that time, this made him the first fighter in promotional history to hold titles in two weight classes concurrently. He is 21-3 as a pro mixed martial artist, and 0-0 as a pro boxer.

Mayweather, meanwhile, is a sparkling 49-0 as a pro boxer. After his last fight, a 2015 decision defeat of Andre Berto, the boxing legend elected to hang up the gloves. Yet this lucrative crossover fight with McGregor was apparently enough to pull him back to the ring.

What do you think of Paulie Malignaggi’s repeated verbal assaults of Conor McGregor?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/7/2017.