by David P. Greisman
For some, it comes after a brush with death. For others, the moment is less about mortality yet changes their lives nevertheless.
Paulie Malignaggi’s moment was a terrifying one, a loss in the boxing ring that left him concussed and hospitalized. That outcome and aftermath had him reconsidering something that had long been his career but which had truly become his life’s work.
He started boxing at 16, turned pro at 20, won two world titles, headlined in main events on major broadcasts, and shared the ring with some of the stars of his generation. More than half his life had been spent with gauze and tape and gloves on his hands, with other men seeking to hurt him, and with him using a mix of speed, skill, technique and guile to win.
But at that moment, he was 33 years old and considering retirement.
Malignaggi had never been a quitter. Not when the string of hand injuries kept taking him away from the sport he loved. The damage deprived him of the tools of his trade, and the threat for further harm always lingered. He had not quit in 2006 when Miguel Cotto fractured Malignaggi’s orbital bone, as the swelling disfigured his face and with Cotto still coming at him with hard shots. Malignaggi had protested when trainer Buddy McGirt stopped his fight with Ricky Hatton in 2008. He didn’t want the fight to end that way, even with the lead on the scorecard insurmountable and despite the potential for further punishment.
He always wanted to continue with his career after each loss, a few of them decisive defeats, a few of them demoralizing thanks to debatable or detestable scorecards.
But he had never been hurt like in his loss to Shawn Porter in April 2014, a four-round beatdown in which Porter swarmed Malignaggi, then stunned him, then dropped him, then finished him.
The flurry was furious from Porter and frightening for those watching. Malignaggi’s head snapped back and then forward again after Porter landed a hard looping right hand. Malignaggi tried to hold on, his back against the ropes, leaning down and forward in an attempt to wrap his arms around Porter’s hips. Porter’s arms remained free, though, and he swiveled with more punches. A couple of them cuffed the side of Malignaggi’s head. But then a right hand caught Malignaggi’s chin flush. A left hook crashed onto Malignaggi’s ear. Malignaggi began to go down but was caught in the ropes. One more right hand hit and Malignaggi crumpled to the canvas. The fight was over.
“The thing is I'm pretty durable and a sturdy guy. I’m a guy that no one can say doesn't take a good punch and I’m a guy that does take a good punch. What surprised me was that he was incredibly strong. Every shot that he hit me with hurt me,” Malignaggi said just days later, speaking with boxing reporter Lem Satterfield for an article on RingTV.com.
“This is a guy who hadn’t had a knockout in two years. This is a guy that wasn’t somebody that really had that killer reputation,” Malignaggi said. He soon added: “I didn’t expect that from Porter. I didn’t expect the power that would hurt me like that. I’ve been in with some of the best fighters in the world, so I know when a fighter is strong and I know how to deal with it. But I couldn’t deal with the power.”
Malignaggi had also been working as an on-air analyst for Showtime, but he missed the broadcast a week after the Porter fight, still recuperating from his injuries. And while he soon returned, it took much, much longer for the damage to disappear.
Next month, more than 13 months after his last bout, Malignaggi will begin his comeback. He’s fighting Danny O’Connor in the opening bout of a May 29 broadcast on Spike TV.
Even before that news came out last week, Malignaggi, who is now 34, had said he would fight again. But that wasn’t always the way he felt during the year between the Porter loss and the announcement of his return. He went from concussion to concession, then changed course and went from craving to comeback.
“The first few months after the Porter loss, I was like, ‘I’m glad I’m done, man,’ ” Malignaggi told me earlier this month, speaking 11 days before the O’Connor match was made official.
He woke up every morning with nausea. “I felt like I was pregnant,” he said. It seemed as if he needed to shake cobwebs out of his head before his day could begin. And even then, there would be bad headaches that came unexpectedly.
He would sit ringside during broadcasts and see a heated exchange between fighters. “Better these guys than me,” he would think. “I’m glad I’m not there.” The restlessness he felt in the past while sidelined with hand injuries wasn’t there now. There was no rush to return.
“I wasn’t even thinking about how long I have to take off, because I wasn’t thinking I’d be back anyway,” Malignaggi said. “Then as time went by, I kind of missed this. You start to pay less attention to the pain in the ring and more attention to the roar of the crowd and the adrenaline and just the rush of competition that you want to feel again.”
Boxing is a lifelong pursuit and an all-consuming passion. The best fighters dedicate weeks and months to training camp, cutting out distractions and pleasures, disciplining themselves for the sake of making weight and bringing themselves into peak form, as physically and mentally ready for combat as can be. It is their everything, and when it is gone there can be a feeling of nothingness.
That is why so many athletes do not adjust well to retirement. It is why so many boxers cannot stay away from the ring. This is the only way they know. It is also the best way they know to make a living.
Some fighters have that decision made for them, taking injuries or beatings so severe that commissions will not license them, or promoters and networks no longer wish to feature them. That is particularly true for star fighters who are unwilling to compete on smaller shows and for lesser paychecks. It is primarily the lesser fighters or fiscally destitute who are somehow allowed to continue to take beatings.
Malignaggi hadn’t suffered a streak of damaging defeats, but he’d been hurt badly enough that he was debating whether a return was worth it. He thought back to Javier Jauregui, a former lightweight titleholder who was 40 years old when he died of a stroke at the end of 2013.
“Sometimes I think, ‘Does that [damage] stay with you later on? That kind of made me scared a little bit,” Malignaggi said. But in the end, he said, “If you’re not living a certain way, you’re basically dead anyway. I’m alive, so I want to live. I want to feel the rushes and I want to feel being alive and going for the gusto and going for big things, and feeling the excitement of things like competition. I’m alive. I’m not dead. I’d still rather enjoy it.”
He began to recognize he was recovering while playing soccer with friends. He could head the ball and not be bothered by doing so. Then he started sparring again. He felt fine, though he also admits that boxers can base their decisions on one good day of sparring after five bad days. Your mind plays tricks on you, he said, convincing you that all you need to do is have a good day like that come fight night.
Still, Malignaggi does have a good gig with Showtime, will work some of the Premier Boxing Champions shows on other networks, and even on occasion has a role with foreign broadcasts of various fights. He doesn’t need the money.
“It’s not always about money why you do something,” Malignaggi said. “I was fighting in the amateurs for free and I loved it. Obviously I’m not fighting for free [now]. You feel a need to feel tested. Broadcasting is a great job and I have a lot of fun doing it. It doesn’t test me the same way. I don’t think anything will ever test you like combat. … There’s always people that are going to be better than you, that are going to give you trouble, that the public might think are better than you, but you might not want to think so, and you want to just test yourself out there.”
Much of his career has been that way, particularly once he moved toward the higher levels of competition. Malignaggi has few knockouts on his record. He’s needed to box well to win, making his opponents miss, sitting down on enough of his shots to earn their respect, and throwing with enough volume to earn points on the scorecards. When he moved from the 140-pound division up to welterweight, and as his reflexes began to slow, Malignaggi showed that he could make his opponents uncomfortable by walking them down and making them fight going backward.
It was an intelligent tactic, though it also meant he was in more danger of being hit. It is what he was seeking to do before Porter landed the shots that changed the course of their fight.
O’Connor won’t be much of a test in terms of the kind of power Malignaggi can still take. He doesn’t carry much pop. They’re not at all mirror images, given that Malignaggi held world titles at junior welterweight and welterweight while O’Connor has never come anywhere close. But Malignaggi’s record includes 33 wins with seven by way of knockout or technical knockout. O’Connor’s ledger shows 25 wins, with nine KOs or TKOS, and two losses.
It’s clearly meant to be the beginning of something for Malignaggi. He doesn’t know how it’ll end, however. Or when.
“I don’t know if I have a long-term goal in terms of wanting to win a certain fight or wanting to win another world title,” Malignaggi said. “Obviously I’d love to win another world title. [Being a] three-time world champion gives me a good push to possibly make the Hall of Fame. I don’t know if what I did now will do that. One more world title will be nice. I don’t know how that will be possible if [Floyd] Mayweather and [Manny] Pacquiao are going to lock up three of the four world titles.”
Mayweather and Pacquiao fight in a unification bout this coming weekend. The fourth title presently belongs to Kell Brook, who won a decision over Porter last year.
“Sometimes I think about it and I say, like, ‘One more year,’ ” Malignaggi said. “And then I think about it: If at the end of the year I’m on the verge of getting a big fight, I’m not going to stop. You don’t know when for sure.”
Malignaggi recalled that his manager, Anthony Catanzaro, knew it was time to wind down his semi-pro soccer career when younger players began to take his spots. He didn’t want to sit on the bench and began to compete in lower divisions of play.
“That’s a team sport,” Malignaggi said. “In boxing, I don’t know. … I don’t have the answer. I’m not going to do this for long, but I want to experience it a little more. The goal is just be in big fights and big moments.”
He’s with the right team for attaining that goal. Malignaggi is advised by Al Haymon, whose roster includes more than 150 fighters and whose Premier Boxing Champions is a high-profile venture being featured on major networks and in front of larger audiences than usually view the sport. Haymon also has numerous fighters in Malignaggi’s division.
Malignaggi also has what he’s done in the past. He just doesn’t want that to be all.
“I think when my career’s over, years from now, whether I’ve won or lost these big fights, at least I’ll be able to say I was in the ring with those guys,” he said. “When people talk about great fighters, I got to share a night with that guy in front of a big crowd, and it was really cool. Whether I won the fight or lost the fight, I had some cool experiences.
“I want to have maybe a little more.”
NOTE: Full video of the insightful interview with Malignaggi that led to this article can be seen at http://bit.ly/pauliecomeback
The 10 Count
1. Wladimir Klitschko’s decision win over Bryant Jennings this past Saturday marked the 18th successful defense of the International Boxing Federation world title Klitschko won from Chris Byrd nine years ago, in April 2006.
That run has led to some discussing whether Klitschko could break a record of 25 successful title defenses set by heavyweight great Joe Louis.
Except Louis was the true heavyweight champion for all 25 of those defenses. Klitschko hasn’t been the lineal champion for this entire time.
Some feel Klitschko’s lineage dates back to 2009, when he took out Ruslan Chagaev. At the time, Wladimir was ranked No. 1. His older brother, Vitali, was ranked No. 2. And Chagaev was ranked No. 3. Since Wladimir and Vitali vowed never to fight, THE RING magazine felt an exception could be granted in which Klitschko vs. Chagaev would make a real champ. The historians with the Cyber Boxing Zone website agreed.
But others, like the writers with the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board, feel that lineage should only begin when No. 1 and No. 2 fight. They say a new heavyweight championship reign began after Vitali had retired and when Wladimir (No. 1) went on to beat Alexander Povetkin (No. 2) in 2013.
So, depending on your perspective, Wladimir Klitschko has now been lineal champion for either 11 successful defenses (which is impressive on its own) or for 3 successful defenses.
Granted, this is a different world given all the sanctioning bodies around now that weren’t around in the days of Louis. But the various world titles also make it easier for someone to have a world title and defend it without being THE true champion.
It should also be noted that Louis had his “Bum of the Month Club” bouts, so it’s not like all 25 defenses of his heavyweight championship were against top-tier opponents.
2. Bryant Jennings fought Wladimir Klitschko on the strength of a very, very, very close win last year over Mike Perez.
Now I’d like to see how Jennings does against other heavyweights with recognizable names.
It won’t be against any of Al Haymon’s guys, so you can rule out Deontay Wilder, Antonio Tarver, Chris Arreola, Steve Cunningham or even Artur Szpilka.
It won’t be against Tyson Fury, who will likely face Klitschko next.
What about a bout with Vyacheslav Glazkov? He was on HBO last March and is with Main Events. Jennings is with Gary Shaw.
3. I’d like you to take a moment to pinch yourself. I’ll wait. See you a couple of lines down.
Still awake?
That’s right. It’s not a dream. Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao is happening this week.
4. There will be more than 15,000 seats this weekend at the MGM Grand when Floyd Mayweather takes on Manny Pacquiao. There were very few of those tickets made available to the public, however — 500, to be exact. It’s little surprise that those seats reportedly sold out in less than a minute.
It’s also little surprise that the secondary market has been ridiculously high with its pricing. And it wouldn’t be surprising if many of the people selling those tickets at exorbitant prices are those involved with the fight, or at least associated with them.
As of Sunday evening, StubHub listed 984 tickets available, everything from $4,685.25 for tickets in the nosebleeds in section 205 to $361,894.46 for what is probably the first row on one of the sides of the ring. Go a couple of rows back and seats drop to $117,005.23. Want to sit in a corner of the ringside area? Those range from nearly $34,000 to nearly $88,000.
Mind you, the cheapest seats have a face value at just $1,500 and were limited to four per household. Given that ticket limit, it’s frustrating to see that, say, those $4,685 tickets for section 205, row K — face value $2,500 — are being sold in quantities from 1 to 17, all from the same seller, which means that this is likely someone on the inside who is partially in control of the market and is taking advantage of it, and people.
I don’t know why anyone would ever pay more than $4,600 for upper-level seats to a boxing match, even one as huge as Mayweather-Pacquiao.
5. Meanwhile, tickets for some of Al Haymon’s other Premier Boxing Champions cards are literally being given away. Right now, you can log on to website 1iota — a self-described audience casting and fan engagement agency — and get one or two tickets to the May 29 show in Brooklyn featuring Amir Khan against Chris Algieri.
The website was offering tickets to last Friday’s show in Chicago featuring Anthony Dirrell vs. Badou Jack and Danny Jacobs vs. Caleb Truax. 1iota was used for the SpikeTV show featuring Andre Berto, Shawn Porter and Chris Arreola in separate bouts in March. And people reported receiving offers from others for free tickets to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Andrzej Fonfara earlier this month.
Mind you, so many boxing shows end up with comped tickets being given out. This isn’t a PBC thing only. But it’s just interesting to see both ends of the spectrum, and also to see that free tickets are being offered so early for a show such as Khan-Algieri.
It reminds me of the hesitancy some companies have when it comes to putting out deals on websites such as Groupon or LivingSocial. They worry about being associated with being lower in value, or having people only willing to come to their restaurant or place of business when hugely discounted deals are available. If boxing fans get in the habit of getting tickets for cheap or for free, why would they ever want to pay?
To be fair, there are also the counter-arguments that they are getting potential customers’ feet in the door, taking a loss now for the sake of future sales, and that more people will become interested in going to these boxing shows as awareness of the brand and its fighters grow.
6. It took so long for a major thing like ticket sales for Mayweather-Pacquiao to happen thanks to disagreements between the promoters.
Meanwhile as I write this, it is late Sunday night and there has been no official announcement regarding the broadcast crew for an event that is less than a week away. It wouldn’t surprise me if HBO and Showtime were still trying to come to an agreement, or at least a compromise.
This kind of rare co-promotion between Al Haymon/Floyd Mayweather and Top Rank, and between HBO and Showtime, is happening because of all the money that will be made, and still there are so many indications that they are not getting along.
While the boxing world is ridiculously excited for May 2, it would be fair to assume that many of those working behind the scenes are looking forward to May 3.
7. Last week’s edition of The 10 Count delved into the inexcusable tweet from Sergey Kovalev showing a photo of the light heavyweight titleholder next to a young boy, with Kovalev pointing at a shirt the boy was wearing — showing the body of a boxer but the head of what appeared to be a chimpanzee.
“Adonis looks great!!!” read the tweet, which was quickly deleted.
Kovalev finally sent out an apology last Wednesday. In full, it read:
“I apologize for my tweet about Adonis Stevenson. I really did not know it was bad. Last few days my friends at Main Events teach me some history about United States. Is very different from where I grow up in Chelyabinsk. I still learning here so I make mistake but now I understand. I hope you forgive me my mistake I will not do this again.”
But it’s not like America is the only place where such a thing is seen as wrong. Soccer in Europe, for example, has been rife with racism from crowds, including something known as a “monkey chant.”
I’m glad Kovalev apologized, but what he said comes off as either ignorant or insincere. And I wish that Main Events and HBO had spoken out. They may have done so behind closed doors in order for this apology to come around, but it also would’ve been good for them to express their displeasure publicly.
8. Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: A British junior welterweight prospect named Justin Newell has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for his role in storing a significant amount of cocaine on behalf of drug dealers, according to the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Police found 486 grams of cocaine at Newell’s home, as well as “amphetamines worth £2,000 and a quantity of benzocaine, which is used as a cutting agent for the drugs,” the article said.
“Newell pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply, possession of a class B drug with intent to supply and possession of criminal property,” the article said.
The 26-year-old turned pro in 2010 but fought only sporadically at first, not returning to the ring again for another year and a half. He fought once in 2011, twice in 2012, twice in 2013 and three times last year, going 9-0 with zero knockouts.
9. Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: We don’t normally post traffic violations in these entries. But when a boxer is accused of driving 128 miles per hour on a road with a 45 mph speed limit, then an exception must be made.
That’s what Brandon Berry, an 8-1 junior welterweight from Maine, was accused of doing last week, according to CentralMaine.com. He was charged with one count of criminal speed.
Berry turned pro in May 2013 and suffered his lone loss in his last appearance, a third-round technical knockout in November 2014 at the hands of a 2-0 foe named Freddy Sanchez.
10. On the undercard of the April 25 show at Madison Square Garden was a heavyweight bout between “Prince” Charles Martin and Tom Dallas.
Martin’s birthday was April 24. Dallas’s birthday was April 23.
Martin won by technical knockout toward the end of the first round. So it’s fair to say that only one of the birthday boys wound up with a piece of cake…
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
