Paulie Malignaggi Questions Conor McGregor's Punching Power Before Floyd Mayweather Fight

Former world boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi isn’t giving Conor McGregor much of a chance to beat Floyd Mayweather in the upcoming super-fight. The Showtime analyst has refused to give an exact prediction, but he’s indicated that the UFC star will have trouble inflicting much damage on one of the best boxers in history.

Malignaggi finds himself in a public feud with McGregor after participating in two sparring sessions with the UFC lightweight champion. Malignaggi abruptly left McGregor’s camp after he accused the fighter of trying to embarrass him.

After Malignaggi denied being knocked down by McGregor during a late round in one of their sparring sessions, UFC president Dana White released a video of the retired boxer falling to the canvas. Malignaggi claims he was pushed, calling out McGregor for having a sense of false confidence.

“He thinks he can punch when he can’t,” Malignaggi said of McGregor on “The MMA Hour” Monday afternoon.

Even though the fight against Mayweather will be McGregor’s first-ever boxing match, a large portion of the public is giving him a chance because of the punching power he’s exhibited in MMA. McGregor utilizes kicks and submissions inside the octagon, but most of his victories have come from his ability to knock opponents out with his fists.

Malignaggi, however, isn’t buying into the hype after getting into the ring with McGregor.

“In boxing, we are constantly fighting guys who have learned to punch correctly because that’s all they’ve been doing,” Malignaggi said. “Boxing is strictly punching. All their opponents, everybody in boxing has learned to punch correctly, put their weight behind their shots, plant their feet at the correct moment. I’ve seen crazy hard punchers, and all of boxing understands the difference between a monster puncher and a non-monster puncher. He’s been giving this false sense of security that he’s this crazy puncher to where people really believe everything he hits breaks down.”

McGregor has proven to be one of the most powerful punchers in the UFC. He knocked out former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo with just one left hand to the face at UFC 194, and he didn’t have much trouble stopping Eddie Alvarez at 155 pounds. McGregor even knocked down Nate Diaz at 170-pounds in a fight that he won by unanimous decision.

Knocking out one of the greatest defensive boxers of all time, however, will be a completely different task.

White isn’t buying what Malignaggi is saying. In an interview on Randomer Sports, White said McGregor delivered a “one-sided” beating to the boxer during their sparring session.

Malignaggi has certainly changed his tune since leaving McGregor’s camp. Before his first sparring session with the UFC champ, Malignaggi didn’t rule out the possibility of Mayweather actually losing.

“When a guy hits as hard as Conor McGregor, all he needs to do is look to grab certain moments in the fight,” Malignaggi said on “The MMA Hour” a month ago. “A moment here, a moment there. Can he turn one of these moments into a bigger moment that can possibly turn into real danger for Floyd Mayweather? And that’s kind of how you want to view the fight if you’re looking at Conor McGregor’s chances of winning the fight. Because if you just look at it, ‘oh, Conor can win the fight’ — it’s not that simple, it’s not that black and white. There’s a lot of gray area in there. You probably favor Floyd Mayweather in the fight. But there’s intangibles that I just spoke about, that you think that maybe Conor has a chance.”

Is Malignaggi not giving McGregor the full credit he deserves because of how their relationship has soured? Is the UFC fighter not really the powerful puncher that many think he is?

McGregor will have his chance to prove Malignaggi wrong on Aug. 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.