18.02.07 – Michael Marley, BoxingConfidential.com: It figures to sell out faster than a testimonial dinner for Tony Soprano. They need a nickname, I got one. “Forget About It” is the name of the fight and it happens July 14 in the Atlantic City Convention Center. This all-Italian blood feud or vendetta has more angles than a crooked pool table.
It’s either the Last Hurrah, My Goombah, for warrior Arturo Gatti or the regeneration of his career which wobbled when Floyd Mayweather stopped him and then went off the tracks against Carlos Baldomir. For Yo Paulie Malignaggi, the slick boxer from Brooklyn who cannot bust an eggplant, it’s a huge payday and a scalp for his wall while he waits for his next world title shot.. Btw, it does not take a team of Price Waterhouse number crunchers to deduce that Yo Paulie brings a lot more money against the faded, 34-year-old Gatti than he does in chasing unexciting world champions Lovemore N’Dou and Ricardo Torres. Neither of those names figures to steam up HBO’s fistic imagination.
Gatti wants it and he made that known in the men’s room at the Tir Na Nog Irish saloon (talk about your boxing exclusives) to some Malignaggi entourage types wearing, red, green and white “Italia” jackets after Paulie easily outpointed too small, too tentative Edner Cherry over 10 desultory rounds at the Hammerstein Ballroom in a Lou DiBella snorefest of an HBO BAD show.
“You can start building that fight,” DiBella said. “That is a great attraction featuring two great warriors who both have great followings. That is a fight made to order for Atlantic City. Paulie wants it and so does Gatti. Is last call for Arturo and he hands the mantle over to the younger guy or does Arturo suck it up one last time and vanquish the upstart. You don’t have to be Italian or Italian-American for that match up to stir your blood. To me, it’s a no-brainer.”
What about the angles? Longtime Gatti trainer James “Buddy” McGirt, whose head is so big he gets both cable and satellite reception through his fancy sunglasses, switched teams after a nasty split with Gatti and worked “Magic Man” Paulie’s corner in the victory over Cherry. Maybe Gatti brings longtime McGirt manager-trainer Al Certo, who also had a nasty breakup with McGirt for some unclear reasons, on to his team.
And how about ubiquitous actor Chuck Zito, the former Hell’s Angel and actor on “Oz,” the prison show on HBO?
Long a familiar face in the Gatti entourage, Zito looked to improve his situation after Baldy beat Gatti and wound up as part of Malignaggi’s entourage. What does Chuck Z do when Paulie fights Arturo?
Leave that to Luigi DiBella who came up with a Solomonic solution.
“I guess Chuck can walk in with both of them,” DiBella said.
I gotta check DB on that one. Zito has to make his choice. In a blood feud, a vendetta, you choose your side. You don’t straddle the middle.
Paulie or Gatti, Chuck, choose your pugilistic paisan.
What happens to the winner? Maybe Ricky Hatton, win or lose against Jose Luis Castillo come June in Las Vegas.
There’s Only One Ricky Hatton and he might be the Only One world champion that Malignaggi can beat and make a fortune trying to do so.
Maybe it’s racist or non p.c. to say it but I will, these three white boys can generate plenty green fighting reach other.
“Forget About It,” Gatti-Malignaggi. It’s a sure thing at the Shore come July 14.