Dan Hardy Blasts Malignaggi Over Claim That Boxing Is Tougher Than MMA Due To Death Toll
Former world champion boxer Paulie Malignaggi caused quite the stir
at the recent Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 6 press conference
when he labeled the MMA community a “piece of s---” before claiming
that boxing is tougher than MMA because of the number of deaths due
to injury.
Malignaggi takes on former UFC fighter Artem Lobov at BKFC 6 on June 22 and in an effort to promote the fight he went to town on the MMA community before talking down Lobov’s chances in their upcoming main event bout.
Former UFC welterweight title contender turned color commentator
Dan
Hardy caught wind of Malignaggi’s comments and spoke about his
reaction on SiriusXM (via BJPenn.com):
“It disappoints me that he is grouping all MMA fans together,” Hardy said. “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.”
Malignaggi’s comments that boxing is tougher than MMA because of the deaths didn’t sit well with Hardy who labelled the statement as “ridiculous.”
“To claim the deaths in boxing is ridiculous, to say ‘we’re the toughest sport because we have the most deaths’ is silly,” Hardy said. “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.”
Hardy believes that once Malignaggi lands a shot on Lobov’s head his hands will break and is not sure how the former world champion will react if that happens.
“Now Paulie is going to get a very different look when he’s bare-knuckle boxing because he’s going to break both his hands on Artem Lobov’s head,” Hardy said. “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 takes on former UFC fighter Artem Lobov at BKFC 6 on June 22 and in an effort to promote the fight he went to town on the MMA community before talking down Lobov’s chances in their upcoming main event bout.
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“It disappoints me that he is grouping all MMA fans together,” Hardy said. “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.”
Malignaggi’s comments that boxing is tougher than MMA because of the deaths didn’t sit well with Hardy who labelled the statement as “ridiculous.”
“To claim the deaths in boxing is ridiculous, to say ‘we’re the toughest sport because we have the most deaths’ is silly,” Hardy said. “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.”
Hardy believes that once Malignaggi lands a shot on Lobov’s head his hands will break and is not sure how the former world champion will react if that happens.
“Now Paulie is going to get a very different look when he’s bare-knuckle boxing because he’s going to break both his hands on Artem Lobov’s head,” Hardy said. “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?”
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