Clearly, there is still heat between these two fighters.

Leading up to UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s bout with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. in August, there a lot of trash talk between McGregor and retired two-time boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi.

If you recall, the two fighters sparred together twice in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a result of those sparring sessions, there has been a big fallout.

The reason for the fallout is due to Malignaggi being critical of McGregor and the way that he was portrayed by McGregor on social media.

Malignaggi had stated in several interviews that he got the better of McGregor. UFC President Dana White released footage of McGregor landing some hard, clean shots on Malignaggi.

There were photos of McGregor showboating with his hands behind his back during their first eight-round sparring session. Then, a second photo came out of McGregor looking down at Malignaggi on the canvas.

Malignaggi said that moment was the result of a pushdown. However, by looking at the video footage, it appears that Malignaggi was actually knocked down by strikes. Since then, the former boxing champion has been campaigning for a grudge match.

McGregor ultimately lost to Mayweather in the tenth round by TKO after being hit by a series of punches against the ropes. Although he lost the fight, the UFC champion surpassed many expectations in his boxing debut.

It appears that McGregor will not be fighting in a boxing ring for his next bout, but instead, he will end up fighting under the UFC banner.

The promotion attempted to make McGregor against interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson but now Ferguson will fight Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223. Malignaggi put McGregor on blast in a recent interview.

“Conor wants to fight, he’s an egomaniac,” Malignaggi told Fight Hype (transcript courtesy of Bloody Elbow). “But Conor is still a bitch at heart. Where he looks at it, he’s going to see Khabib and Tony Ferguson, ‘sh-t, that’s an ass whooping.’ Anybody in boxing is an ass whooping. ‘Any door I open I’m getting my ass whooped.’”

“Everybody waiting for you is gonna beat the living sh-t out of you,” he continued. “Including me, Pacquiao, Oscar can come out of retirement and beat the sh-t out of you. Khabib is gonna beat the sh-t out of you, Ferguson is gonna beat the sh-t out of you.”

“Just fight off (the desire to come back),” Malignaggi said. “Just fight it off, you p-ssy. You’re not even going out on top because you got your ass whooped the last fight, and you got your ass whooped two fights ago in the UFC as well.”

“You’re not even going out on top, but give the perception that you’re going out on top. Because enough people perceive that you’re going out on top, so just leave with that perception. Do yourself a favor.”