Training partner: Conor McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi’s sparring session was like a ‘full on fight’

There has been little information brought to the forefront about Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather’s sparring sessions ahead of their boxing bout on Aug. 26 at the T-Mobile Arena.

However, in his latest column for the Irish News, commonwealth youth silver medalist and McGregor sparring partner, Tiernan Bradley, claimed that McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi’s sparring session resembled a “full-on fight”.

According to the 20-year-old, McGregor told his team before hand that he wanted to fight Malignaggi, not spar him.

“I was in Paulie’s corner and although he hasn’t fought since March and is retired, he’s getting sharper by the day,” Bradley explained.

“You can see he’s still a class operator, and it was an interesting spar to watch – more a full on fight actually. Conor told us all when Paulie came into camp ‘this is not a spar, I want to fight him. I’m ready for a war’.”

After his first sparring session with McGregor, Malignaggi appeared on The Jim Rome Show and said that the Irishman doesn’t have ‘Oh my God’ power.

Bradley thinks that Malignaggi should watch what he says, as ‘The Notorious’ will be looking to knock him out the next time they spar.

“Paulie was talking to him in between rounds, trying to give him advice, but then he was getting slapped in the face,” recalled Bradley.

“I saw what he said about Conor’s power, and he’s playing a bit of a dangerous game because he still has more spars to go with Conor, and Conor will be out there to knock him out. He’ll want to show him he has ‘oh my God’ power.”

Veteran referee Joe Cortez has been brought into the camp to help McGregor adjust to the boxing rule set. Appearing on Sirius XM on Monday, Cortez echoed Bradley’s sentiments with regard to the intensity of the sparring session.

“They were both roughing each other up and I had to stop the action, like it was a regular fight,” said Cortez.

“They were holding too much, they were trying to punch each other. I mean, it got a little bit out of control where I had to call, ‘Time, alright guys, you’ve got to stop this now. I want a good, clean round. Give me sportsmanlike conduct, understand?’”