Dana White claims Showtime did not want their sparring footage of Conor McGregor vs Paulie Malignaggi

If the beef wasn’t enough between Conor McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi, bring in Dana White.

White was the one to release a couple short clips of McGregor and Malignaggi’s second sparring match, which included the highly debated knockdown/push down. To follow things up after White posted the clips to his social media, the UFC President went on to say that Malignaggi left the camp “for his health because it was a 12-round, straight ass-whooping.”

White spoke with the media on Tuesday and said he has nothing against Malignaggi personally but will throw right back if he gets some trash talk thrown his way.

“I have nothing against Paulie,” White told the media (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “I don’t even know the guy. I don’t know him. But you know me, man. When you start talking (expletive) – (with) how I get – I actually felt bad for the guy. I actually felt bad for him.”

Malignaggi does fight commentary and analysis for Showtime, which is the broadcasting partner for the Mayweather vs McGregor bout. White said they gave Showtime footage of McGregor and Malignaggi sparring but claims they did not want to use any of it.

“The last thing I want to do is get in a beef with Showtime, but we gave them a ton of the footage of the (Malignaggi vs. McGregor) sparring, and they denied it – because they didn’t want to make Paulie look bad,” said White. “They had a ton of the sparring footage, and they wanted to use zero (of it).”

It isn’t clear if Showtime got the full unedited footage of the sparring between McGregor and Mayweather. However, it seems Showtime did not have an interest in highlighting Conor McGregor at the expense of Paulie Malignaggi.

on 8/16/2017.