Conor McGregor vs. Paulie Malignaggi: I Don’t Hate It | SiriusXM | Luke Thomas

My hope is that Conor McGregor commits himself to the maximum of his mixed martial arts (MMA) abilities in 2019. I consider him an elite professional MMA fighter and believe, as an observer with my own vested interests, that placing him in an area where he can maximally employ his fighting skills is the optimal outcome. However, what the former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion wants to do at this stage in his career is far from clear. He understandably is promoting his Proper Twelve whiskey, has a new addition to his family and even his coach John Kavanagh has somewhat hinted that a restoration process is in order to get McGregor back to peak MMA form. If that kind of commitment isn’t what he prefers, why not try a boxing fight with Paulie Malignaggi? I’m not suggesting the fight would be great, although it would likely be a financial windfall. Rather, McGregor isn’t necessarily holding up the contender queue at lightweight in the UFC.

Once Khabib Nurmagomedov’s issues with the Nevada Athletic Commission are sorted, they can ostensibly move along. The issue here is what McGregor wants. As an observer, the only outcome I don’t want to see is where McGregor stays in MMA, but without the proper motivation to fully exhaust his talents. If that’s not a place he’s ready to go to with everything else going on in his life, a boxing match with a rival is not a problem.