Malignaggi's Exit Puts an End To Unlikeliest of Fight Journeys

By Lyle Fitzsimmons

Go ahead and claim that you saw it coming.

On second thought, don’t bother.

Because no one of sound mind would believe – especially upon playback of Paulie Malignaggi’s desultory rematch against Lovemore N’Dou in 2008 – that the fighter toting the “Magic Man” nickname and the dreadful hair extensions would be anything approaching memorable a decade later.

The split-decision win on that late spring day in Manchester let the Brooklyn native retain the first of two career world titles. But it’s far more memorable for the wardrobe malfunctions that prompted superfluous hair to be taped up before it was shorn in the corner between the eighth and ninth rounds.

It was hard to consider Malignaggi much beyond a punch line at that point, and a drubbing six months later at the fists of a once-beaten Ricky Hatton seemed a death knell for his center-stage run.

That, incidentally, was 3,207 days before Monday.

Or eight years, three months and 13 days before the curtain fell on the unlikely career of a guy who wound up not just a two-division champion, but probably the most skilled fight analyst on TV today.

An official announcement came via social media, roughly 48 hours after Malignaggi took a left hook from 23-year-old Sam Eggington that convinced him to take a 10-count on his career in Round 8.

And as juvenile as he seemed back then, he was twice as classy upon standing down.

“19 years ago – March 6, 1998 – I entered the ring for the first time as an amateur. That makes this as good a time as any for me to officially announce my retirement from competition,” he wrote.

“My life is in a place 19 years later that I never dreamed it could be in. And I have boxing to thank for that. I gave absolutely everything I had to this sport or almost 2 decades, and I will never lose the many, many incredible memories that were created during that time.”

With the staying power of a cockroach, Malignaggi was back five months after the loss to Hatton and secured another title fight – against WBA 140-pound champ Amir Khan – a year later in May 2010.

And even though he dropped all 10 rounds before falling in the 11th, he offered up a surprising career swerve by climbing the ladder to welterweight and becoming one of the division’s most unlikely champions with a ninth-round TKO – the last of his career – against Vyacheslav Senchenko in 2012.

Bleacher Report’s Henry Martin labeled his defeat of Freddie Roach’s pupil a “master class.”

“His punches were faster and came in more of a variety than Senchenko's,” Martin wrote. “He out-jabbed the jabber, the jab being Senchenko's strongest weapon in the fight. He slipped and ducked a lot of Senchenko's punches, making him miss at will a lot during the fight. Finally, he was putting his punches in combinations while attacking at angles, flustering the champion.”

He defended once – with a dubious decision over Pablo Cesar Cano – before losing the belt via a more-decisive-than-it-was-scored verdict to Adrien Broner. A fourth-round beatdown loss to Shawn Porter on the Bernard Hopkins-Beibut Shumenov undercard in Washington, D.C. signaled a swan song on the championship level and prompted a 16-month hiatus before another KO loss, this time to Danny Garcia.

Malignaggi briefly reinvented himself into a world commodity, fighting and winning in Italy, London and New York before returning to the UK for the finale on the Tony Bellew-David Haye show.

“I’m looking forward to a long, fruitful career now behind the mic, staying around the support I love so much and the sport that changed my life for the better,” he wrote Monday. “Thank you to the sport of boxing and thank you to everyone who supported me along the way on this incredible journey.”

But if you’re worried he’ll never be heard from again, don’t.

As good as Malignaggi was in the ring, he’s that much better alongside it – breaking down strategic nuances in a coherent, accessible manner that’s unique among former fighters. And while his gloved career will surely fall short of Canastota, his new gig might get him there sooner than later.

“I am forever grateful,” he said.

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This week’s title-fight schedule:

NONE

Last week's picks: 2-2 (WIN: Niyomtrong, Yamanaka; LOSS: Garcia, Rungvisai)
2017 picks record: 16-6 (72.7 percent)
Overall picks record: 838-280 (74.9 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.