Two-time former world champ and current Showtime color commentator Paulie Malignaggi is either pushing really, really hard to sell his June 22 pay-per-view BKFC (Bare Knuckles Fighting Championships) debut against UFC veteran Artem Lobov or he?s having a mental breakdown in public.
?Next month, I?m gonna put this guy in a f**king coma because that?s what he deserves,? Malignaggi hurled from the podium at Monday?s press conference to hype the PPV show from Tampa, Florida. ?He?s a piece of sh*t. He?s a piece of sh*t. Okay? You?re a piece of sh*t, bro. You and that whole crew where you came from. You?re a piece of sh*t and I?m gonna treat you like the dirtbag that you are. After I beat the f**k out of you, I?m gonna spit on you?I might take out my d**k and piss on you?I?m gonna take out my d**k? piss in the mouth that has no teeth left?in that toothless mouth of yours?f**king p*ssy. You got five weeks to live, mother**ker. Get ready.?
Okay.
Oh yeah, he also swung the mic at Lobov before this?and then spat in his face during the post-conference stare down. A couple weeks prior, he ?b?tch-slapped? Lobov in a gym scuffle.
The 32-year-old Lobov is a friend and training partner of Conor McGregor, who brought Malignaggi in for sparring to help prepare for his 2017 bout with Floyd Mayweather. Video snippets of McGregor having the upper hand in sparring were broadcast by Team McGregor and provoked the rage of the Brooklyn native, who claimed that he schooled McGregor in sparring and that the video clips paint the wrong picture of what actually happened.
The 38-year-old former welterweight and junior welterweight titlist has been fuming over that sparring footage ever since.
In March, Malignaggi signed with BKFC after having been retired from boxing for two full years and immediately set his sights on a bout with Lobov, who had been signed by the company one month earlier after being released by the UFC. It?s clear that the bout with Lobov was meant to tap into the existing animosity to sell the boxer?s bare knuckles debut and, surely from Paulie?s end, keep pushing for a big money bout with McGregor, himself.
For those unfamiliar with BKFC, this is the organization where President David Feldman stormed the ring after a tactical chess match of a fight on a Biloxi, Mississippi card and declared, ?We?re here for action?we demand action from the fighters. We didn?t get action in that last fight, because Rusty Crowder wanted to run. Therefore, he?s giving half his purse to Reggie Barnett. Make some noise Biloxi. This is how we do it at Bare Knuckle. You fight, or you don?t get paid.?
Feldman later retracted his declaration, presumably when someone reminded him of the lawsuits ready to be filed and the possible loss of license from the Mississippi State Athletic Commission. But, one gets the drift?the BKFC ain?t exactly Wimbledon-classy.
And what about Malignaggi-Lobov, the fight?
The Russia-born Dublin, Ireland resident has a simple strategy when it comes to ?The Magic Man.?
?Grab him by the back of his f**king head and shove my fist down his throat.?
?The Russian Hammer? is all-around dismissive of Malignaggi, blasting his preparedness for ?real? fighting and even casting aspersions on his 16-year, 44-fight professional boxing career.
?Anytime he fought anyone halfway decent, he got his ass whupped,? Lobov said, pointing out that, in his estimation, Malignaggi is 1-8 in ?real? fights against actual world class opposition.
As for the reason behind Malignaggi launching himself into a new phase of a combat career that was thought to be over two years ago, Lobov, again, pulls no punches.
?He?s broke, he needs money. That is the fact. If he wasn?t stuck for a few quid, he wouldn?t be doing commentary week after week after week. He is broke.?
Malignaggi, meanwhile, attributes his glove-less boxing rebirth against Lobov to nobler causes.
?Lobov and the mixed martial arts community have really disrespected my sport in a lot of ways; boxing, saying that we fight with pads on and it?s not a real fighting sport and whatnot, but we have all the deaths,? Malignaggi recently told FightHype.com.
?When your piece of sh*t community and your piece of sh*t people talk about ?we fight with pads on and now you?re in a dangerous sport like MMA,? when nothing of the sort happens to you, which is why you have a circus of a fanbase because it?s like wrestling. At the end of the day, no matter what happens to you guys, [tapping] assures you you?re gonna see that guy next week. [Tapping] assures you you?re gonna see that guy in a few months. In boxing, you don?t have those assurances so there?s a respect level even to the trash talk that we have and it?s being surpassed now, it?s being overcome with this garbage that we have from this other community.
?For me, I think the way you solve it, seeing one of their own in a coma, seeing one of their own in a f**king coffin, then you say, ?You know what, this sh*t is not a joke.?
