He is more comfortable behind the comms mic these days, and hasn’t been in a boxing ring since the four round beatdown in April last year at the hands of Shawn Porter, but Brooklyn’s Paulie Malignaggi returns on August 1st in a 12 round non-title bout against Danny Garcia on a PBC on ESPN card, and has said via fighthubtv that he has the bit back between his teeth again.
Malignaggi was due to box on the Khan/Algieri undercard back in May against the unheralded Danny O’Connor but withdrew through injury and now takes on the far tougher task of Garcia – who himself has been criticised for recent performances against Lamont Peterson and Mauricio Herrera – and is debuting at 147 lbs.
“Little by little I started feeling hungry for it again. I checked myself out in the gym – little by little I got sharp and for most of this year I’ve been in the gym four days a week, so I’m feeling pretty good.” said Malignaggi.
“I needed time off to recover – I took a bad loss, and I needed everything to physically be there and make sure I was on point and 100% before I tried something physical like fighting again. So I feel good.”
Talking about Garcia, as well as his opponent coming up in weight, Malignaggi doesn’t necessarily see any immediate advantage, saying;
“I don’t think either of us are natural welters, we’re guys who turned pro at lighter weights and kinda navigated our way to the welterweight division – we grew out of our weight classes. You put on extra pounds as you get older, it’s natural, it’s normal.”
“Danny is more than what people think. I don’t think they give him enough credit for the things he done. He’s beaten some good fighters for a reason, over the course of his career. This is a guy who wasn’t handed his world title, he’s beaten guys like Nate Campbell, Kendall Holt, Mike Arnaoutis – even before he fought for the world title. Even his rise up the ladder wasn’t handed to him.”
“Come fight night I expect to be very prepared, I expect Danny Garcia to be very prepared and I expect it to be a good fight.”
Twitter @Undilutedpoison