Floyd Mayweather has said Conor McGregor is an “extremely dirty fighter” after he watched footage of the UFC fighter sparring with Paulie Malignaggi.
“A lot of shots were illegal,” said Mayweather. “Lots of grappling and illegal punching behind the head.”
Malignaggi left McGregor’s camp when images of him down on the canvas were made public after the session. Malignaggi also told BBC Sport he questioned if McGregor could “keep it clean” against Mayweather.
“His intensity is a good thing, I just don’t know if he can go without fouling,” Malignaggi told 5 live’s boxing podcast. “Fighting up close, I think he gets a bit confused and he ends up fouling. I think that’s where he can be most intense but fighting up close is the hardest thing in boxing to learn and I don’t think you can do that in a few months.”
Mayweather, speaking to a teleconference of journalists around the world, said: “He had Joe Cortez in his camp but I still saw him being extremely dirty. My job is not to worry about the referee but to let the referee do his job.”
Robert Byrd, himself a Hall of Fame referee, has been chosen to officiate the T-Mobile Arena bout.
The two are set to go head-to-head on August 26.
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