Midnight Mania! Malignaggi leaves Team McGregor after unflattering sparring photos posted

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

The Malignaggi-McGregor saga ended today; Malignaggi issued the following statement to his social media. He wants everyone to know he won’t “give away anything tactical that I saw in 2 sparring sessions with Conor” and he wishes McGregor and his team the best. He did hint that after the fight, we might hear more details on his grievances.

His grievances doubtless include the photos of McGregor landing on him that have made their way onto social media through various channels. Malignaggi had gone on social media earlier in the evening to demand the UFC release the unedited sparring footage from their 12-round session yesterday

That, obviously, is not happening, and Malignaggi knows this.

He pivoted pretty quickly from ‘it was back and forth, he came on strong at the end’ to “I actually beat his ass”. Which was it?

One particular photo Malignaggi did get out ahead of, saying there was a pushdown, but no knockdowns in their second, 12-round sparring session. Perhaps it was a pushdown. But a picture of Malignaggi on his back with McGregor standing up exists.

A+ meme work here

Malignaggi has been relishing the attention that came with being a sparring partner for McGregor and to be involved in the Irishman’s training camp; however, this is something he should have probably foreseen. McGregor was posting pics of himself connecting on his other training partners earlier in camp. Another professional boxer he sparred, Chris Van Heerden, was savvy enough to record his own video of the sparring session; a year after McGregor posted a video showing exchanges he got the better of, Van Heerden posted his own clip showing moments more favorable to him. In other words, this is nothing new from McGregor. McGregor’s goal is to convince people that somehow, he has a shot against 49-0 Floyd Mayweather. As it turns out, that means Malignaggi has become collateral damage on the promotional path.

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Insomnia

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Wladimir Klitschko retired today, meaning that rematch with Anthony Joshua is off the table. Klitschko was the greatest heavyweight of the past decade.

Here is his official statement:

Klitschko tributes:

Werdum being weird

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Quick Hits

• With Pay-Per-View numbers in freefall, is the UFC still worth 4.2 billion dollars?
• Jon Jones smells what our future president, the Rock, is cooking
• Andrew Richardson breaks down the technically sound game of Sergio Pettis

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Podcasts and Video

Sergio Pettis’ diverse jab setups by Andrew Richardson

Flyin Brian J picks the main event between Pettis and Moreno.

The MMA Ratings Podcast, talking Tyron Woodley’s win, the contender series on Tuesday night, and Pettis vs. Moreno

Discussion on when, where, and if Jones vs Lesnar will happen

UFC 214 Post-Mortem by Tommy Toehold

A look at the training camp of an actual professional boxing great, Vasyl Lomachenko

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