The build up has been hectic and sometimes controversial but finally fight week has arrived for the long-awaited bout between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather in Vegas.
In the McGregor camp, much of the focus has surrounded what did or didn't happen in the sparring session against former WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi with the latter not hiding his displeasure with the initial emergence of video footage from said session.
With Saturday's big money fight approaching fast, Malignaggi joined us on Off The Ball and he was blunt in regards to his feelings towards McGregor.
"One common core in a fighter in mixed martial-arts or boxing is you need character and you only have the ability to show character when you're in trouble, when you're tired, when you're hurting. This guy has no character. He's more so like a bully [in the ring], when he's got the advantage, when he's better or whatever, he's loud, he's obnoxious, he's whatever.
"But start putting hands on him and you'll see a totally different person come out and that's more so what I'm curious about this Saturday night because he will catch a bad beating Saturday night. I want to see how he reacts to it, I want to see if he tries to fight back and I don't mean in the first two or three rounds - I mean when it's getting really bad, after Round 6."
But he does feel the Dubliner will make it to Round 6.
Malignaggi expanded on that assertion by discussing how he felt McGregor fared against him in their sparring session and some of the circumstances he feels are relevant.
"I freely admitted that the only reason he got the better of me in the late rounds was because I was not in condition to go the late rounds, otherwise he probably would have got beat every round," said the US former boxer.
"The thing about the late rounds and him having footage and what not, it's the only rounds he really has footage from because they were the only rounds in which he did anything."
Malignaggi admitted that McGregor did "hang tough" in those early rounds but that does not equate to winning any rounds.
"Hanging tough means it was competitive for the first five rounds and maybe we were trading rounds. Let's call it that for arguments sake," he said, adding that there was a five rounds stretch in which he dominated before tiring and then McGregor being more impressive in the final two.
He also added: "[McGregor] is not the bravest guy once you're beating him up".
Malignaggi also played down the impact the 8oz gloves will have in the fight between McGregor and Mayweather.
You can listen to the full interview on the podcast player below or iTunes:
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