Fansided

Kavanagh ‘grateful’ for Malignaggi’s time in camp

By Brett Auten

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 01: Paulie Malignaggi of The United States attends the Media Work Out at The O2 Arena on March 1, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 01: Paulie Malignaggi of The United States attends the Media Work Out at The O2 Arena on March 1, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images) /
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In an interview with MMA Fighting, McGregor coach says he was happy with former champ’s time in Team McGregor camp

As the saga between Conor McGregor and former two-time world champion boxer/McGregor sparring partner Paulie Malignaggi continues to churn in the forefront of Mayweather vs. McGregor, John Kavanagh offered an olive branch of sorts.

After weeks of headlines concerning Malignaggi’s time inside Team McGregor, Dana White added more fuel to the fire when he released late Friday night on his Instagram account a little over 20 seconds worth of footage between McGregor and Malignaggi, which has been at the forefront of the controversy. Once again, social media lit up with the questions of whether McGregor scored a knockdown or was it more of a pushdown that occurred during one of the two sparring sessions between them.

Before the sparring sessions footage surfaced, MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani had an exclusive interview with Kavanagh following McGregor’s open workout and he spoke on an array of topics, including the benefit of watching his pupil spar Malignaggi.

“I’m very confident of Conor’s skills, but I’d have to be—you know, the engineer in me would have to be honest and say I hadn’t seen him spar a high-level boxer until I saw him spar Paulie, and it was nice to be confirmed what I was very sure of; his technique and skills would cross over to this area,” Kavanagh said. “That only confirmed it for me, so I’m very happy with Paulie, very glad he was part of the team.”

Kavanagh spoke on the bunker-like mentality the camp has had in Las Vegas and claimed not to be privy to all of the bluster surrounding Malignaggi.

“I haven’t actually seen anything,” Kavanagh said. “You know, you’re scrolling through the news and I can see he’s done quite a few interviews, but I’ve genuinely not watched one. The only thing I would say is I was very grateful to have him here. We got two great spars out of him. To be honest, two good spars out of him was kind of what I was expecting anyway. The fact that it went sour and he’s clearly unhappy, what comment can I make to that? That’s up to him.”

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