Assess this Paulie Malignaggi quote

[freedom213]

props to paulie for not quiting but he's probably lucky Cotto was at the end of his rope at 140 and didnt have enough in the tank to close. Against Cherry, well who knows how he will act in the ring after taken a mansize beating compliments Of Cotto. Its obvious he has been thinking alot about the Cotto fight so psychologically if he is still trying to rationalize his loss to Cotto maybe he wont be the same guy (confidence) when he steps into that ring w/Cherry?

[eazy_mas]

after the Chery fight Pauli should call out Hatton.

[Easy-E]

I interviewed Paulie Malignaggi at the Curtis Stevens fight the other night, and I'm about to drop the interview. I wanted to get some feedback on this particular part of the interview because he raised some serious issues with this. Let me know if you agree with him, and look out for the entire interview on the latest edition of The Word, with Paulie Malignaggi tonight.

********: One of the more entertaining aspects of the Paulie Malignaggi show is the spitting, the mouthpiece. Here's your forum, speak your mind.


Malignaggi: "There's a couple of things I've been wanting to say. Based on the injuries I suffered in the fight, people take the Cotto fight, and not everybody but I've seen some reports... See, I didn't come out looking facially so good in the fight. People take that and take away the competitive aspect of the fight because of that. People see the injuries in the fight and say 'he got killed.' Ay yo, you know what, the fight was physically grueling but in the end, I got 4 rounds on two cards and 5 rounds on another card. I could've been given as much as 6. Regardless, a lot of people still choose to say I didn't belong in the ring with that, that it was too early, and this and that. What it all boils down to, I gave Miguel Cotto a solid fight. I didn't drop him like Ricardo Torres did, but I made Miguel Cotto think. I made Miguel Cotto have to make adjustments in a fight that he needed to win. With Ricardo Torres, he pretty much got up and walked through him because Ricardo Torres can't fight. With me, he had to make some adjustments, especially when I started coming back in the fight.

"I think I gave the fans an opportunity to show that Miguel Cotto can also do a little more than just ****. I think we pretty much complimented each other with that. Like I said, if I could say something it would be to those people, reanalyze the fight a little bit because the fight was competitive. If I didn't come out with a swollen face, people would be saying that's a fight of the year candidate. Because I came out the fight with a swollen face, people are to to say that was a beating. That's frustrating, but it's more disappointing."

I think hes right.
That was his most competitive fight and biggest challenge to date.

[oldgringo]

I think Malignaggi is right about his ability to hang in there with Cotto while not getting blown out in 2 rounds like some thought would happen. He had some nice moments in the fight and showed his brass. I think Malignaggi will come back and could have success...dude gave a much better account of himself than I thought he would. Not so much because his boxing abilities were better than I thought they were, but because he showed the heart and calm demeanor in the ring.

All of that being said...

I don't think he ever sees the full 12 if Cotto could have carried 140 better later into his reign at that weight. Cotto was one of the most complete looking prospects I have ever seen early on in his career. Two fisted power, excellent body puncher, great ring instincts, fluid mover and puncher, solid defense. The way he utterly destroyed Victoriano Sosa (his 1st coming out party for me) just re-affirmed that in my head. He clearly wasn't the same guy in his last handful of fights at 140.

I think everyone saw the real Cotto against Quintana. I've been saying this about Cotto for a grip too so this isn't another wishy-washy fan just getting over-excited about the Quintana win. He looks stronger, more stable, and more fluid. He looks much more like that guy who blew Sosa out of the water.

The thing that bothered me about what Paulie said was the whole, "Torres couldn't fight so he lost to Cotto" thing. Torres took that fight on short notice and fought until he was just plain old physically broken by Cotto. Dude fought his heart out and showed us again that he could hang by recently beating Arnaoutis. That fight was infintely more difficult for Cotto than was the Malignaggi fight because here's Torres, this unknown guy sporting this pretty knockout ratio, who just happens to be an all out bomber. This fight coming only 7-8 months after Cotto got his first real scare against Corley...and then was hit by more solid right hands than he would have liked against Abdullaev. Malignaggi showed Cotto some different looks and brought some nice boxing skills to the table, but Cotto effectively walked through him and battered him. I had Cotto winning 116-111, virtually dominating the first four and final three rounds of the fight from what I remember.

Edner Cherry will be a tough ass fight for Paulie too. He can definitely fight, despite his misleading record.