Retired former boxing champ Paulie Malignaggi says he’s been asked to join Conor McGregor’s camp for Mayweather fight

The money fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is less than two months away from taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada.

McGregor has started his camp in Ireland and his coach John Kavanagh says they plan on finishing their camp in Las Vegas. With the boxing match coming up, we haven’t seen or heard of any big name stars joining McGregor’s camp for the potentially record-breaking fight.

However, former WBA and IBF world champion Paulie Malignaggi stated recently on the Showtime Sports podcast that he has been asked by McGregor’s team to join their camp to help him prepare for Mayweather.

“I did get called to go to camp with Conor McGregor,” said the recently retired boxer (transcribed by Danny Segura for MMA Fighting). “I was surprised [since] I haven’t really been training, I haven’t been in the gym, so I started working out a little bit. I’m working out the details to spar with McGregor. If it’s something that’s going to be feasible, I think it’ll be cool because I think I’ll have some inside stuff to talk about on fight night.”

Malignaggi now works as a boxing commentator for Showtime and will be doing color analysis on the big money fight along with other Showtime broadcasting crews including Mauro Ranallo, who was recently added to Bellator MMA’s broadcasting crew.

“I don’t really see myself talking about anything about camp because I’m a team player. I don’t want to be the kind of guy that comes out of camp and starts talking, ‘this and that, and that happened in camp’, but I think on fight night – during the broadcast – I think I will have some cool, in-depth stuff that I’d like to talk about because by that point we’re already on fight night and it’s there. I think it’s interesting that they called me in general, you know. As people know, I announced my retirement and I think this is a good opportunity to lose a little bit of weight and also take part of a training camp without having to make weight, so that’s fun.”

Interestingly, Malignaggi actually called McGregor out to a boxing match last year, to which McGregor responded in “Notorious” fashion. However, the former boxing champion says that it shows McGregor’s character and willingness to learn by putting his pride aside in reaching out for help with fight camp.

“I think there are a lot of curiosities,” Malignaggi said. “I know he’s an ultra competitor, he’s a guy that’s very competitive and I’m curious to see –and I’ve seen him fight in the UFC, obviously and I think he’s very talented – how his training camp is coming along because I know he already started his training camp in Ireland and he’s going to move it to Las Vegas.

“That’s where I’m going to join them, when they transfer to Vegas, so I’m curious to see the kind of progress thus far in the Irish part of the camp and see what he’s got to offer in this part of camp. I don’t have my fighter eyes on right anymore, I’m not coming in as a 22-year-old sparring partner. When I was a 22-year-old kid, sparring with champions, I felt like I went in there with something to prove. I’m coming in here more of like a team player, and I’m curious to see what’s there. I think that first sparring session will be pretty interesting, so let’s see if I do it though. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but they have reached out to me and we’re in talks.”

on 6/30/2017.