McGregor’s sparring partner quits after photos leak

Ariel Helwani joins the Starting Lineup to discuss the absurdity of the Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight as well as Georges St-Pierre's return to the ring.

Retired boxer Paul Malignaggi has left his role as Conor McGregor’s sparring partner and took to Twitter on Thursday to slam the UFC star’s camp for allegedly leaking photos from a recent in-ring session.

The photos show Malignaggi in an unfavourable light.

Malignaggi, a former two-weight world champion, had worked two sessions as a sparring partner for McGregor, who’s preparing to box the undefeated Floyd Mayweather on Aug. 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Nevada. Malignaggi called for McGregor’s team to release video of the 12-round sparring session that took place Tuesday.

Later in the evening, Malignaggi posted a statement on Twitter.

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.