Not With A Bang, But With A Whimper

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It started when Conor McGregor released unflattering photos -- followed by an even less flattering video -- from a private sparring session between him and Paulie Malignaggi in the build-up to his 2017 megafight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. It ended nearly two years later at the Florida Fairgrounds Expo Hall, where the former two-time boxing world champion was dispatched by McGregor proxy Artem Lobov in an ugly decision that anchored Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 6.

With icepacks furnishing both of his historically problematic hands, Malignaggi attended the post-fight press conference to rage against BKFC6’s judges, describing them as not knowing “what the f--- they were doing” and “what the f--- they were watching.” In the next breath, he called it a career. “Everyone and their mothers know that I won this fight,” Malignaggi said to the assembled media. “But, you know what, I’m also 38 years old, and I guess this is sort of a sign to say ‘yo, you gotta stop this.’ Because I probably would have kept doing this if had won this fight tonight.”

Even before the decision was announced, Malignaggi’s antipathy towards Lobov and his entourage had disappeared. The two men embraced in the centre of the ring, and exchanged pleasantries while waiting for the official announcement. At the presser, in response to a question about respect, he admitted to having it for “The Russian Hammer.”

The anticlimactic nature of the fight, and the cordiality between two men who were supposed to harbour a historic (if somewhat contrived) grudge against one another, feels like an appropriate -- and familiar -- ending to the story BKFC6 was pushing. But even though his shtick was becoming tiresome, and it’s an objectively good thing for the sport that the Malignaggi-sideshow has ended, one can’t help see the “Magic Man” as a sympathetic figure.

Malignaggi’s gripes with McGregor, about integrity, and the maxim that what happens in the gym stays there, rang sincere, even if the ends to which the retired pugilist went to maintain interest in their squabble escalated to the embarrassing. It was cringeworthy to watch him confront “The Notorious” during the MayMac fight week, and more than a little jarring to see him mosh for a bout with McGregor while broadcasting his fight opposite Mayweather for Showtime. Between that event and Saturday’s, Malignaggi sent innumerable tweets and gave innumerable interviews about his violent intentions for McGregor. Hell, he signed up for bare knuckle boxing – a sport that the “sweet science” hasn’t exactly embraced -- where he’d threatened to knock Lobov’s teeth out and then “piss in [his] mouth”.

But although the delivery was obnoxious, the premise of Malignaggi’s argument was solid. He said that if the Dubliner was so sure that he was the superior combatant, it would be easy money to run it back in front of a live audience, and if Malignaggi needed to beat up Lobov to goad McGregor into the squared circle, that was fine too. There was a big element of wanting to shut up the Twitter eggs, by whom Malignaggi has been hounded by since that infamous sparring session. As he told The Sweet Science last month:

“You should have seen the social media after I sparred with McGregor. His idiot fans calling me a f------, a little Dago, things they wouldn’t have the courage to come up to me on the street and say to my face. And they don’t just put it on their sites. They put it all over my social media pages. I can post a photo of me at the beach and, a day later, there’s all sorts of ugly s— attached to it. I have a young niece and nephew who read this s— about me. My mother sees it. It’s been two years since I sparred with that scumbag and this s— still follows me every day.”

And sure, a big part of it was business too. Yet surely no one could blame Malignaggi -- least of all boxing and MMA’s power brokers -- for trying to cash in on the McGregor sweepstakes. The 38-year old had a decorated boxing career, sharing the ring with men like Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia, but a signature win had eluded him. He was screwed over in big fights, and in others -- like his infamous bout with Adrian Broner -- lost by infinitesimal margins.

Here he had a sellable backstory to a legitimate beef, which would likely net him more money in one night than the rest of his professional bouts combined. He wanted what every prize fighter yearns for: a big spotlight, a bag full of cash, a winnable fight and a whole bunch of mouths to shut up.

Even if the chances of a McGregor-Malignaggi bout actually coming to fruition seem slim to begin with, they are definitively down the toilet after Saturday night. And although most pundits seemed to be leaning towards giving the 38-year-old the win on the scorecards, the fact remains that he was a world class boxer, fighting a sub-.500 MMA fighter in a fight that was competitive enough for it to be called the other way.

And that, more than anything else that Malignaggi has achieved in the ring or outside of it, will be what he is remembered for. The guy who couldn’t walk the walk. The guy who lost to MMA’s punchline in Artem Lobov. The guy who spent two years of his life debasing himself for a fight with McGregor, and then lost to his nemesis’ sparring partner.

As a public figure and one of the most capable boxing commentators in the game, Malignaggi will not soon live down what happened on Saturday. With Saturday night’s loss, his gamble in Florida stands as the most calamitous misfire of his career.

Jacob Debets is a law graduate and writer from Melbourne, Australia. He has been an MMA fan for more than a decade and trains in muay Thai and boxing at DMDs MMA in Brunswick. He is currently writing a book analyzing the economics and politics of the MMA industry. You can view more of his writing at jacobdebets.com.