A rivalry brewed between the MMA and Boxing communities is not new for the past several years. The former mixed martial artist Dan Hardy jumps to defend his MMA community, after Paulie Malignaggi’s harsh comments.
The retired boxer Malignaggi has found his way into a bare-knuckle boxing match against Artem Lobov, and the two attended a pre-fight presser. Following the press conference for BKFC 6, Malignaggi made a harsh statement about the MMA community to be “a piece of sh*t”.
Dan Hardy Condemns Malignaggi’s Comments
Malignaggi’s earlier comment has understandably prompted dismay among the MMA community including Dan Hardy. The former UFC welterweight title challenger and now color commentator, Dan Hardy commented on the matter on SiriusXM:
“It disappoints me that he is grouping all MMA fans together. We are not all grouped together, we are not poking fun at boxing because they wear pads, we do respect it and it’s often been boxing that has drawn the ‘us vs. you’ argument because of the rise of MMA.”
Dan Hardy went on to condemn Malignaggi’s comment about the risks of boxing to be in poor taste. He believes that the high rates of deaths and injury should be analyzed and prevented, instead of bragging about it.
“To claim the deaths in boxing is ridiculous, to say we’re [boxing] the toughest sport because we have the most deaths is silly. Maybe what we should do is analyze why there are deaths in boxing and see if we can fix it, and part of the problem maybe is [that] they are wearing padded hands.
“Now Paulie is going to get a very different look when he’s bare-knuckle boxing cause he’s going to break both his hands on Artem Lobov’s head. He’s got soft hands and no punching power as it is…He’s also set the bar very high now because if he goes into this fight against Artem, he breaks both his hands and he can’t continue to fight what’s he going to do, tough guy it through?”
Malignaggi’s conflicts with the MMA fans is not new, the American boxer has been at odds with MMA community ever since his sparring sessions in 2017. As stated by the former boxing champion there is a huge disrespect for boxing in the community.
