Fresh off his impressive fifth-round revenge stoppage win over fellow bare-knuckle warrior Artem Lobov, Jason Knight of Mississippi finds himself with more than a few options. The natural fight out there is a third and deciding fight with Russia’s Lobov, the two now being 1-1. This fight may well happen; Knight sure wants it, but can Lobov recover from the hammering he took on November 16?
If not, and in a move that might surprise some if not others, Knight could possibly fight a certain Paulie Malignaggi. Malignaggi was game enough (some say crazy enough) to step into the world of bare-knuckle combat to fight Lobov this June; losing a five-round decision that could so easily have gone the other way – Paulie saying straight after the decision was announced, and still saying so now, that the appointed officials had “no clue” what thy were watching, what they were doing.
After avenging his loss to Lobov, Knight took to social media to call out the former two-weight boxing champ:
“@pauliemalignaggi I know u don’t want to fight BKFC again but what would u say to a boxing fight?? I have no prior pro boxing matches but I bet I can school you at your own game!!,” Knight wrote.
Malignaggi responded quite swiftly to or the written challenge. Malignaggi wrote that he would have liked to face Knight but that his hands wouldn’t be able to “survive the impact again,” that his bare-knuckle career amounted to just one fight. However, Paulie did say that he would consider a gloved fight with Knight. But if this fight did go down – and in light of some of the crazy and wild things that the sport of boxing has seen over the past few months, who can rule it out – who would win?
Malignaggi is much older than Knight yet he has the big edge in boxing experience. And Paulie might not have taken too kindly to that “I bet I can school you” crack. Having said that, Malignaggi says he has full respect for Knight and his talents.
Malignaggi lost to Lobov, and he did break a hand during the battle (no surprise there) but he was not knocked out and he did not end up a bloody mess the way Lobov and Knight did in their first fight (a war which really does have to be seen to be believed).
Would you watch a Malignaggi-Knight fight, inside a BKFC arena but with gloves, if it actually happened?