'B***': Conor McGregor's teammate slapped in fiery face-off

One of Conor McGregor’s staunches allies has been slapped in the face by the man who famously walked out on the Irishman after branding him a “scumbag”.

Paulie Malignaggi was the retired boxer employed by McGregor’s team to help out with sparring sessions for the Irishman’s mega fight with Floyd Mayweather in 2017.

He famously walked out on the UFC fighter before his crossover bout, after accusing McGregor of using him and disrespecting him.

Now the bad blood between the two is sure to boil to the surface again after Malignaggi got in a heated altercation with McGregor’s teammate, Artem Lobov.

The two men were at a Bare Knuckle Fight Club promotion in Mississippi when their fiery war of words turned took a nasty turn and Malignaggi slapped Lobov in the face, before calling him a “b***”.

Curiously, it’s the second time Lobov has been publicly slapped in the last 12 months, with UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov doing likewise to spark one of the biggest feuds ever seen in the sport.

Khabib’s slap on Lobov saw McGregor retaliate by attacking a bus containing the UFC champion and his entourage in Brooklyn in April, 2018.

That of course proved a dramatic precursor to the chaotic scuffle that followed Khabib’s win over McGregor at UFC 229.

Malignaggi could be heard saying “I’m gonna knock you out” to Lobov as the pair exchanged words inside a gym.

“Not a chance. Not a chance. I don’t want to do it here because you’re going to get hurt. You’re going to get broken up in here,” Lobov responded.

Malignaggi then raised his finger up at the Lobov and warned his rival not to threaten him, before slapping him across the face in front of several witnesses.

The feud didn’t end there, however, with both men taking shots at each other on social media afterwards.

Following the scuffle, McGregor even decided to get in on the fun – taking to Twitter to mock Malignaggi.

The Irishman posted several photos of the two sparring, including the infamous knockdown shot.

Malignaggi’s bad blood with McGregor

Malignaggi said after his infamous training camp with McGregor that he had no regrets about taking on the job, despite referring to the Irishman as a “scumbag”.

The retired fighter walked out of the training camp after he said McGregor used him like a pawn, disrespected him in the dressing room and housed him and the other sparring partners in dumpy accommodations.

He also gave a detailed breakdown of how their sparring sessions went, no doubt providing Mayweather with a blueprint on how to beat McGregor.

Malignaggi, a former multiple world champion, said despite training little during retirement he had no trouble getting the better of McGregor, accusing the Irishman of being more interested in putting on a spectacle than actually training.

He was also upset about training camp pictures made public that kept showing the Irishman in a positive light.

“The guy is all about his ego. He’s actually not trying to get better. He’s got a bunch of yes men in his corner who tell him he’s doing good even if he’s doing bad. It is just about him and cheerleading,” Malignaggi told MMA Hour.

With agencies