"$600,000 for a main event?" - Conor McGregor's ex-teammate goes ballistic at "pig" Dana White's boxing venture, cites Francis Ngannou's example

Conor McGregor's ex-sparring partner has launched a lengthy tirade in reaction to Dana White's boxing endeavor. The individual cited Francis Ngannou's feud with the UFC as an example and accused White of paying MMA fighters a minimal amount.

White's entry into the boxing scene has sent the entire combat sports world into a frenzy. The UFC CEO recently took to social media and announced that he and WWE president Nick Khan will head a new boxing promotion established by the partnership of Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, and TKO Group Holdings.

In response to the news, McGregor's former training partner, Paulie Malignaggi posted a video on his YouTube channel questioning why the Saudis would associate themselves with the UFC CEO, who has a poor reputation regarding fighters' compensation. Malignaggi said:

''Why would you align with a guy like Dana White who has such a bad reputation for being a PIG with the way he pays fighters?”

Malignaggi also pointed out that Ngannou was underpaid in the UFC despite being the then-heavyweight division's kingpin, saying:

''Francis Ngannou was the Deontay Wilder of his heavyweight division at the time. $600,000 for a main event? Dude, the guys in boxing make $30 million at that level. I’m friends with more MMA fighters than boxers, with MMA fighters, I’ve never heard a single good thing said about Dana White.”

Notably, 'The Predator' left the promotion in January 2023 due to unsuccessful contract negotiations, among other reasons.

As for Malignaggi, he is a former professional boxer, who is currently working as a boxing commentator and analyst. The Italian-American is now associated with BYB Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting Series, a rival to BKFC, which is partly owned by McGregor.

Notably, he also sparred with the Irishman before the latter's boxing matchup with Floyd Mayweather in 2017.

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Dana White makes promising remarks about boxing

Dana White, who has always been interested in leaving his mark in the boxing world, recently opened up about the newly formed promotion in collaboration with Turki Alalshikh.

In an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the UFC CEO claimed that boxing is a ''broken'' sport and he's ready to fix it, saying:

"[Boxing] has to be the only sport that has generated trillions of dollars in revenue. And at the end of the day, there's nothing there. And the sport is broken and fragmented. You can't make the fights that everybody wants to see. For the first time ever, the sport is actually being invested in, everything is being pulled into one roof and it will actually [be] a functioning business in the next five years."

Check out Dana White's comments below: