Hall-of-fame boxningsdomaren Joe Cortez hyrdes in till UFC-superstjärnan Conor McGregors camp för att hjälpa irländaren att förbereda sig inför Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Dels för att hjälpa McGregor att anpassa sig till boxningsreglerna, men också för att medverka som domare under sparring.
Under en av dessa sessioner ska Cortez ha tvingats sära på McGregor och sparringpartnern Paul Malignaggi efter att de gått för hårt åt varandra. Det berättar domaren för SiriusXM:
“He handled himself pretty good with Paulie. That guy can pop. He was in there mixing it up a little bit with Paulie and it was the real thing. They was no messing around. In fact, I had to stop the action and I had to say, ‘Alright guys, you guys are a little out of control here, you gotta stop this.’ It got a little rough,” säger Cortez.
”Vill inte sparras”
Cortez menar att situationen höll på att spåra ur när han gick emellan McGregor och Malignaggi, och uppger att han även fick sätta stopp för skitsnacket de båda emellan:
“They were both roughing each other up and I had to stop the action like in a regular fight. They were holding too much, they were trying to punch each other. I mean, it got a little bit out of control where I had to call ’Time!’.”
“I said ‘Alright guys, you gotta stop this right now. I want a good clean round. Give me sportsman-like conduct. Understand? I don’t want to take any points from either one of you. Do you understand??’ I looked at them and they said, ‘Okay, alright.’ And I said, ‘Time in.’”
“I had to put a stop to (the trash talking) as well,” säger Cortez. “That’s part of why I had to stop the action.”
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Även McGregors sparringpartner, Tiernan Bradley, vittnar om att sparringsessioner med McGregor och Malignaggi påminner om fullskaliga slagsmål – McGregor ska ha sagt att han ville ”slåss, inte sparras” med Malignaggi:
“I was in Paulie’s corner and although he hasn’t fought since March and is retired, he’s getting sharper by the day,” förklarar Bradley.
“You can see he’s still a class operator, and it was an interesting spar to watch – more a full on fight actually. Conor told us all when Paulie came into camp ‘this is not a spar, I want to fight him. I’m ready for a war’.”
LÄS MER Conor McGregors sparringpartner Tiernan Bradley: ”Han lyfte mig med högern”
