Paulie Malignaggi will ‘knock the beard off’ Conor McGregor

Former two-weight world champion Paulie Malignaggi has offered to welcome Conor McGregor into boxing and insists he will “knock the beard off” the Irishman.

McGregor sparked rumours of a potential mega-fight with the now-retired Floyd Mayweather after being granted a boxing licence by the California State Athletic Commission on Thursday in pursuit of a “high-level opponent”.

Last month McGregor, nicknamed ‘the Notorious One’, became the first simultaneous two-weight champion in UFC history after defeating Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 but after recently being stripped of his featherweight crown and obtaining a boxing licence, speculation of a crossover fight has grown.

But Malignaggi, who has previously held the IBF light-welterweight and WBA welterweight titles, has threatened to teach McGregor a boxing lesson for what he views as a sign of disrespect to his sport.

“I have been hearing a lot about this Conor McGregor situation and I got to thinking — you know what I am kind of interested,” Malignaggi said on his Twitter account.

“At first I was telling Conor to stay in his lane and I was thinking ‘you know what, you are going to embarrass yourself’ but if you are really going to disrespect the sport of boxing like that then I would like to be the one to teach you that lesson.

“I would never disrespect your sport and tell everybody ‘you know what, I could beat the best fighter in the cage’. You shouldn’t come to our sport and tell everybody you could beat the best fighter in our sport in a ring.

“I know you apologised about absolutely nothing last fight but after I am done with you — I am going to knock the beard off you homie — you are going to be apologising for everything you have been trying to do to get into boxing.”

Malignaggi last featured in a 10-round unanimous decision win over Gabriel Bracero in July.