by David P. Greisman

Earlier this week, welterweight titleholder Paulie Malignaggi had spoken of how he had wanted his June 22 fight with lightweight beltholder Adrien Broner to have drug testing done by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, only to be told that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency would be doing the testing instead.

Except the testing hadn’t started yet, Malignaggi had told Ben Thompson of FightHype.com.

That has since changed, according to Malignaggi, who spoke with David P. Greisman of BoxingScene.com and Tim Starks of Queensberry-Rules.com in Atlantic City on Friday afternoon.

“They started testing the next day,” Malignaggi said. “The next day they showed up.”

Malignaggi’s preference for VADA had come due to concerns about USADA, particularly due to the drug testing that was supposed to occur for Broner’s fight last year with Antonio DeMarco — except that testing never happened, as chronicled afterward by Gabriel Montoya of MaxBoxing.com

“I’d heard stuff about what had happened in the DeMarco fight, where they were going to test him and didn’t test and all this stuff,” Malignaggi said on Friday. “I had really pushed for VADA testing in the beginning of the negotiations. They said ‘No, it’s not going to happen.’ So when I had to settle for USADA and it didn’t happen, I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ ”

The refusal to use VADA came from Golden Boy Promotions, Malignaggi said.

“My preference was VADA. There was reason for it,” he said. “There were articles that came out about USADA, and I was a little concerned about it, so I’d rather avoid any issues. But if it’s got to be USADA or lose a seven-figure payday, you’re going to go with USADA.”

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com