By Mark Vester
Former junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi returns to the ring on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Foxwoods, Connecticut. Malignaggi faces Chris Fernandez on the undercard to Carl Froch-Jermain Taylor. He returns from a the worst fight of his career, an eleven round stoppage at the hands of Ricky Hatton last November. Malignaggi looks to get his career back on track.
He has a new team, a new direction and a new focus. Speaking with BoxingScene.com's Jose "OnFire" Aguirre, Malignaggi says the bout with Fernandez is a make or break fight.
"I don't know too much about Chris Fernandez. I think 16-6. This is a very good opportunity for him so I'm sure he's training pretty hard, but I'm training very hard for it too. I've been in the gym for a long time. Just because I haven't opened my mouth doesn't mean I haven't been training," Malignaggi said.
"I think he's the kind of guy who sees this as a survival fight. This is make or break for him. This is a make or break fight for me too. I can't afford to get beat by the Chris Fernandezes of the world. I'm not taking nothing away from him but at the same time this is a fight that I have to win if I want to go back and excel to the top of this game."
For the last few years, Malignaggi was being trained by former champ Buddy McGirt. He says the style he was being taught was a recipe for disaster. He is now under a new trainer, Sherif Younan.
"I feel that for the last couple of years, I was being taught a style that really wasn't me from the word go. Little by little I felt like I was depleting so I felt it was time for a change. For the people who say my two title defenses prior to the Hatton fight, you could see me slipping, sliding - I couldn't get up. The Hatton fight was a disaster that was a cherry on top," Malignaggi said.
He plans to show the Malignaggi of old, with a few new tricks, on Saturday.
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