Paulie Malignaggi faced a backlash on Twitter after the former professional boxer made comments comparing the fighting styles involved in boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA). The 36-year-old was hired as a sparring partner for Conor McGregor as the Irishman prepared for his massive encounter with Floyd Mayweather. During these sessions, Malignaggi outlined how he would wear Notorious down by delivering body shots which would ultimately lead to fatigue reducing the ability to throw punches. The boxing commentator also stated that McGregor "whimpers like a girl" when taking a shot to the body and that he does not react well to them. Malignaggi posted a tweet that read: "Yea but this coming week I'll actually start to discuss a bit of what happened Tuesday, he whimpers like a girl when he gets ripped to body lol."It is well known that the Italian-American had an altercation with McGregor and his team with the former welterweight division competitor refusing to train with the MMA fighter. In an interview with MMA Hour, Malignaggi further explained the fatigue concept, saying: "In MMA the body shots aren’t the same as in boxing in that there is consistency to body shots in boxing. There is a debilitating breakdown from the body shots in boxing. Little by little you feel the air come out of you with fatigue.“Fatigue is always hard because you don’t have enough snap in your shots any more. You can’t throw as often as you want to.”However, it's his more recent comments on Twitter that have caused an explosive reaction from the MMA community. During this Saturday's showdown between McGregor and Mayweather in Las Vegas, Malignaggi tweeted a response to a fan's suggestion that Mayweather had worn McGregor down by landing shots to the midsection, saying: "Exactly, body punches aren't really used in MMA though so those fans can't grasp concept of what those do to a fighter, they cause fatigue."This statement did not go down well with MMA followers and the man from Brooklyn received a massive backlash. Twitter user Esma responded: "Body shots are definitely used a lot in mma... there's nothing in boxing that isn't used in mma."Malignaggi found it necessary to reply and said: "Yea, because Conor was taking body shots so well in the gym and in the fight. I guess it's from being used to taking them in MMA fights lol."This seemed to have opened the floodgates with more Twitter users jumping in to criticise the former boxer, with one user calling him "ignorant" about MMA. Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway told Malignaggi to "please shut your mouth" and that he would show him "something about body work". Malignaggi responded by delivering another scathing attack on MMA, saying: "Used 2 have so much respect for MMA b4 all this but these weirdos even have fighters as trolls. Finally 1 I've heard of n watched at least." 

In further response from Holloway, Malignaggi added: "That you do, character can't be taught. The body attack discussion is in regard to systematic attacks to body in boxing not singular shots."