by James Slater – With it now looking as though Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Junior will only be meeting up for a fight in a courtroom, there has been much talk of “Pac-Man” moving on and fighting someone else on March 13th in Las Vegas. Wanting to box on the same date that was set for what would have been one of the biggest and possibly greatest fights in modern day boxing history, due to how his time will be taken up by his political goals later on next year, Pacquiao’s name has now been linked with that of the recently rejuvenated Paulie Malignaggi.
Bob Arum has reportedly (via a number of sources) offered the fight to Malignaggi’s promoter, Lou DiBella, and Team-Malignaggi is interested in taking the March bout. But how will the fans react if the pound-for-pound king does indeed wind up facing “The Magic Man” instead of “Money” next year? Obviously more than something of a letdown of a match-up compared to the two pound-for-pound rivals going at it with the entire world watching, Pacquiao-Malignaggi would likely struggle at the box office..
That said, and even though he’s no puncher, New York’s Malignaggi has been showing his best form in years just lately. Promising he’d get back to his old, effective, pre-trainer Buddy McGirt style for his fight with Juan Diaz, Paulie proved he was telling the truth. Robbed in the first Diaz fight, the demanded return saw Malignaggi win his biggest and most important fight for quite a while. But even with this newly reacquired form, has the man with just 5 KO’s to his name as a pro really any shot at beating the lethal and speedy southpaw?
Malignaggi has some superb moves, and he has speed of his own; but enough to trouble the all-time great who has recently utterly destroyed the two men to have beaten him with no arguments? Ricky Hatton and before that, Miguel Cotto beat Malignaggi decisively, yet Pac-Man annihilated both guys. Going purely by form, then, Malignaggi would lose to Manny.
However, Malignaggi has wanted to fight Pacquiao before now (hasn’t everyone at or around the 140-pound weight limit?) Prior to his ultimately losing fight with Hatton back in November of 2008, Malignaggi was angered at the way Pacquiao was talking about possibly getting the Hatton fight ahead of him and of beating Ricky even before Malignaggi had been given his chance at doing the same.
In an interview with this writer for this web site, Paulie told me the following on the subject of what he called Pacquiao’s disrespect:
“I am really angry at the complete lack of respect Manny Pacquiao has been giving me. I mean, he’s been talking about fighting Hatton next, when Hatton hasn’t even got past me yet! I’ve worked very hard to get where I am in my career, and for Pacquiao to completely take that away from me by disrespecting me – that makes me really want to punish him after I beat Hatton.”
Of course, Malignaggi was then pulled out very late in the November fight by then-trainer McGirt, ruining any chance Paulie had of facing Pacquiao. But there has at least been a deep motivation on his part to fight the Filipino legend for some time. Now, in light of the Mayweather situation, the 29-year-old New Yorker could see his chance reopen. Maybe it already has.
We’ll likely have to wait until the holidays are over before we hear any more news on the subject, but the fast-talking slickster who is currently 27-3(5) looks to be the favourite to take the place of Mayweather and fight the most feared fighter on the planet next March.
But again, how will the fans react if this is indeed what happens?