Former world champion rants about ‘stupid’ MMA fans in response to Dana White’s boxing plans

Paulie Malignaggi says MMA fans are too ‘stupid’ to demand cross promotion fights

Paulie Malignaggi has expressed negativity towards Dana White’s boxing plans in the past and his feelings on the matter haven’t changed since then.

Malignaggi, who still has a score to settle with Conor McGregor, was critical of the UFC president and MMA fans in general once again during a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.

When he was asked about Zuffa Boxing not recognizing the belts of the sanctioning bodies, the former world champion chose this moment to insult the fans.

“MMA fans are not that intelligent and I’ve said that over and over again and now I’m going to give you an example of why they’re so stupid.”

The sanctioning bodies in boxing have long been criticized due to politics and negotiations preventing fans from seeing the fights they want.

Malignaggi argued that while this is sometimes the case, it’s even worse in MMA where there’s no chance of seeing promotions work together to pit their fighters against one another.

“In MMA, you don’t even have that hope. The line is so drawn in the sand, you can’t even have that hope. The UFC champion will never fight the PFL champion, the PFL champion will never fight the ONE champion, and so on and so forth in the same weight class. Those are the fights you should be asking for.”

While Malignaggi claimed that MMA fans don’t have the ‘intelligence’ to demand this, it was argued by Helwani that the structure of the sport simply doesn’t allow it.

Not to mention that for the most part, there isn’t much demand to see champions from different promotions face one another.

Paulie Malignaggi is set to compete for the first time in four years this weekend

Many of the replies to Paulie Malignaggi’s recent comments referenced his history with MMA fighters.

Along with the controversy surrounding his sparring sessions with Conor McGregor in 2017, the former world champion boxer was beaten by the Irishman’s ex-teammate, Artem Lobov, in a bare knuckle boxing match in 2019.

After competing in an exhibition bout in 2021, Malignaggi is now set to make his bare knuckle return this weekend at BKB 47 in Leeds, England.

After Malignaggi’s criticism of the MMA fan base, there may be a few more spectators tuning in to see how he gets on against Tyler Goodjohn this Saturday night.