LAS VEGAS (all times US) — Tuesday's grand arrivals began the fight week hype for Saturday's showdown between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather had plenty of heated moments. But an old rivalry that had started to die down was re-energized and became the highlight of the night.
MORE: McGregor and Mayweather clash during grand arrivals
After McGregor made his arrival, he spoke to the media. While that was happening, Paulie Malignaggi was listening closely to what the UFC lightweight champion had to say.
A hint of something was about to happen with the way Malignaggi was listening to McGregor speak to the media.
— Steven Muehlhausen (@SMuehlhausenMMA) August 23, 2017
Shortly after, Malignaggi said some words to McGregor's manager Audie Attar and McGregor, who saw what was happening, stepped in. Words were exchanged between McGregor and Malignaggi before the Showtime analyst and McGregor were separated. Malignaggi insists he wasn't trying to rain on McGregor's parade and start an altercation.
"I wasn’t trying to get to him," Malignaggi told Sporting News. "I was trying to get Audie’s attention. I wasn’t even trying get into Conor’s way. This is a media scrum. I’m not involved in the fight. I was trying to get Audie’s attention to say, ‘That was low. That was undignified what you guys did. You know between me and you, I was trying to be the better man’. And you obviously say what happened afterwards. He was trying to say I talked out of my contract."
Back in July, McGregor had brought the former two-division world champion in to help him prepare for Mayweather. Then at the beginning of August, Malignaggi came back to do a 12-round session. After the session had concluded, two photos leaked of the session including one of McGregor standing over Malignaggi insisting a knockdown had taken place. Malignaggi left the camp and has insisted in media interviews that he had gotten the better of the sparring sessions.
Eleven days ago, UFC president Dana White released a 22 second video of McGregor appearing to knock Malignaggi down to the canvas. Malignaggi says McGregor held his head down and it was a push to the mat.
"I was actually trying to talk man-to-man with his manager," Malignaggi said. "I was talking to him like, 'Yo you know that was low.' He said, 'You talked out of your contract.' You know I didn't talk out of my contract. All words came out after he put up pictures. He posted pictures, you send the media to me and forced me to have to defend myself."
