Paulie Malignaggi

Paulie Malignaggi
Malignaggi in 2010
Statistics
Real name	Paul
Nickname(s)	Magic Man
Rated at	Welterweight Light welterweight
Height	5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Reach	70 in (178 cm)
Nationality	American
Born	November 23, 1980 Bensonhurst, Brooklyn,[1] New York City, New York, U.S.
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	42
Wins	35
Wins by KO	7
Losses	7

Paul "Paulie" Malignaggi (born November 23, 1980) is an American professional boxer and commentator.^[2] Nicknamed the "Magic Man",^[3] he is a former IBF junior welterweight and WBA welterweight champion.

Early life

Malignaggi was born in Brooklyn to Sicilian immigrant parents, he spent most of his early days in Syracuse, Sicily.^[3] Six years later, after Paulie's brother Umberto was born, the family decided to settle back in Brooklyn, but Paulie's professional soccer playing father stayed for only a few weeks before returning to Italy. Paulie's mother remarried and the two brothers didn't get along with their new stepfather, it all culminated in 1996 when the pair got into a fight with the stepfather and not long after, they were kicked out of the house. Paulie then lived with his grandparents until he got his own home years later. Paulie got into trouble often at school, and was regularly in street fights, taking knives and even a gun some days. He was eventually expelled from high school for getting into fights and ditching classes, his grandad took him to work each day until Paulie pleaded that he be allowed to take up boxing, he was eventually given the chance and never looked back.^[4]

Boxing career

Light Welterweight

Malignaggi vs. Cotto

Upon turning pro in 2001, Malignaggi won his first 21 fights before suffering his first loss in a grueling battle with multiple-division champion Miguel Cotto in June 2006.^[5]

Malignaggi vs. Cherry

Malignaggi got back on track with a unanimous decision victory over Edner Cherry at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, February 17, 2007.^[5]

Malignaggi vs. N'dou

On June 16, 2007, Malignaggi defeated Lovemore N'dou via a 12 unanimous decision to win the IBF Light Welterweight Championship at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. The bout was one sided with one judge awarding the bout a 120–106. Lennox Lewis, who was commentating at ringside for HBO, described Malignaggi's performance as a "boxing clinic." After this win and the victory over Edner Cherry earlier in the year, Malignaggi was awarded the Ring Magazine comeback of the year award at the end of 2007.

Malignaggi vs. Ngoudjo

On January 5, 2008, Malignaggi defended his title against Herman Ngoudjo in a highly competitive match held at Bally's Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Malignaggi controlled the fight with his jab until he was stunned in the 7th round, but Ngoudjo failed to finish the job. After the seventh, Ngoudjo became ineffective with his aggression and came up short and lost a wide unanimous decision, which although fair, did not reflect the competitiveness of the fight.

Malignaggi vs. N'dou II

On May 24, 2008, Malignaggi beat Lovemore N'Dou in a rematch by split decision to retain his IBF title at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. Malignaggi was in control for the first half of the fight, boxing behind his faster and crisper jab.^[6] Prior to the fight, Malignaggi was sporting hair extensions which proved to be a problem throughout the fight until his trainer Buddy McGirt cut them off in his corner between rounds eight and nine. Malignaggi appeared sloppy in the second half of the fight as N'Dou came back to make the fight close. In the end, Malignaggi pulled out a close victory and also suffered a fractured right hand in the fight.^[7] Malignaggi vacated his title on September 19, 2008.

Malignaggi vs. Hatton

On November 22, 2008 in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Malignaggi fought The Ring and IBO Light Welterweight Champion Ricky Hatton. It was billed as the boxer against the brawler. Hatton dominated and won every round but the first. Hatton rocked Malignaggi in the second and several other times during the fight, leaving Paulie to hold on, doing exactly what he publicly said Hatton does. With Malignaggi way behind on points, his trainer Buddy McGirt threw in the towel during the 11th round. Paulie to this day adamantly blames the training style of Buddy Mcgirt for the loss. He says Buddy was responsible for the negative changes in Paulies style of boxing leading up to this fight. A loss in which he believes he would not have suffered otherwise, pre Buddy Mcgirt or post.

Malignaggi vs. Díaz I & II

On August 22, 2009 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Malignaggi fought former lightweight titlist Juan Diaz for the vacant WBO NABO Light Welterweight title at a catch-weight of 138½ pounds. Unofficial HBO scorer Harold Lederman scored the fight 115–113 for Malignaggi, but none of the three judges saw the fight this way. Gale Van Hoy had it by an 118–110, Raul Caiz had it 115–113 and the other Judge, Dave Sutherland scored it 116–112, all in favor of Juan Diaz. In the post fight interview of the Juan Diaz fight (interviewed by Max Kellerman, HBO boxing analyst), Paulie was furious, stating that "boxing is full of shit." He also stated that the only reason he is continuing to fight is because of the good pay day.^[8]

A rematch with Juan Diaz occurred on December 12, 2009 in Chicago on HBO. This rematch went in Malignaggi's favor when he defeated Juan Diaz by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 116–111 in favor of Malignaggi. In the fight, Malignaggi threw more punches but only landed 21% of them while Diaz landed 28% of his, but threw less.

Malignaggi vs. Khan

Khan (left) and Malignaggi at a press conference on March 17, 2010.

Malignaggi's next fight was against Amir Khan in Madison Square Garden in New York on May 15, 2010. The press conference took place in London, England on March 12 while another press conference was held in New York City, United States on March 16. Malignaggi was stopped in the eleventh round by the referee. As the fight progressed, Malignaggi began to fall behind on points and the result began to get comfortable for Khan. He was very overmatched throughout the fight. This would be his last fight at Jr. welterweight, he had a very difficult time making weight for this fight and it showed in his performance.^[9] On September 28, 2010 it was announced that Malignaggi signed with Golden Boy Promotions.^[10]

Welterweight

Malignaggi vs. Senchenko

On April 29, 2012 Malignaggi fought WBA Welterweight Champion Viacheslav Senchenko in Donetsk, Ukraine. Malignaggi won by ninth round technical knockout to take the title.

Malignaggi vs. Cano

Malignaggi then went onto defeat Pablo César Cano via split decision on October 20, 2012, on the undercard of Erik Morales and Danny Garcia rematch.

Malignaggi vs. Broner

Malignaggi then went onto fight Adrien Broner on June 22, 2013. Malignaggi lost a split decision, with one judge scoring the fight 115-113 for Malignaggi, and the other two scoring 117-111 and 115-113 for Broner. The decision was disputed....Many felt it was a delusional effort to try to create a superstar out of Adrien Broner. Adrien Broner was subsequently beaten in a decisive decision his very next fight by Marcos Maidana.

Malignaggi vs. Judah

Malignaggi then faced five-time champion and fellow Brooklyn native Zab Judah at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on December 7, 2013. In the second round, after Judah connected with a hard left hand, Malignaggi went down but argued that it was a slip. Malignaggi got up and went to dominate the remainder of the fight en route to a unanimous decision victory.^[11]

Malignaggi vs. Porter

Entering the fight as a 2-to-1 underdog, Malignaggi faced Shawn Porter at the DC Armory in Washington, DC on April 19, 2014. Malignaggi was cut in the first round by a Porter double-jab, and was knocked down early in the fourth round before being defeated by TKO at 1:14 in the same round.

Malignaggi vs. Garcia

Malignaggi took on Danny Garcia at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, August 1, 2015. It was Malignaggi's first step up to fight at 147lbs. Malignaggi was cut above his right eye by the third and had a large welt beneath the right eye by the sixth. At the time of the stoppage, at the 2:22 mark of the ninth round, Malignaggi was absorbing a succession of blows as referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stepped in and wrapped his arms around him, signaling the end. Garcia was awarded a technical knockout.^[12][13]

Professional boxing record

Acting and other media

Malignaggi has done print clothing ads that have been featured in magazines such as Esquire magazine, Playboy magazine, and Frank 151 magazine. He also had a small role in the movie Undefeated featuring John Leguizamo, and had a feature documentary on his life leading into his fight with Miguel Cotto titled "Magic Man," which later aired on Showtime. Japanese video game company Nintendo used him to portray their character Little Mac in the live-action trailer for the new sequel Punch-Out!! for the Wii. Malignaggi is a featured fighter in EA Sports' Fight Night Round 4 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Malignaggi is currently an award winning^[15] commentator for Showtime, Fox Sports 1 and British channel Sky Sports boxing broadcasts.^[16] In 2015, Malignaggi featured in Blue Bloods episode "Home Sweet Home."

Personal life

Paulie currently splits time between Brooklyn, Long Island, Los Angeles, but primarily lives out of Miami. He also visits Sicily once a year. He is a fan of the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, New York Giants, New York Rangers, and a supporter of Major League Soccer club, New York City Football Club, the Italian national team, the United States national soccer team and Serie A soccer club, AC Milan. Besides speaking English, he can speak Italian and Sicilian as well as Spanish.

References

1. What's Next For Bensonhurst Boxer Paulie Malignaggi
3. http://www.goldenboypromotions.com/fighters/paulie-malignaggi-magic-man/
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5Yy3hfYvl0/
5. http://www.premierboxingchampions.com/paul-malignaggi
6. Watt, Craig (2008-05-25). "Hatton delights his 56,000 fans!". Fightnews.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-27. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
7. "Paul Malignaggi Update!". Fightnews.com. 2008-05-27.
8. "Paulie just wants a payday". Sky Sports. February 20, 2009.
9. http://boxing.fanhouse.com/2010/05/15/amir-khan-vs-paulie-malignaggi-live-round-by-round-updates/
10. http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=31345
11. http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/10101224/paulie-malignaggi-beats-zab-judah-unanimous-decision-welterweight-bout
12. http://www.premierboxingchampions.com/garcia-vs-malignaggi
13. http://www.premierboxingchampions.com/news/brooklyn-s-paulie-malignaggi-road-likely-ends-same-place-it-started
14. http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=052984&cat=boxer
15. "Danny Jacobs to again replace Paulie Malignaggi as Showtime analyst". Ring Magazine. April 24, 2014.
16. "Malignaggi Making Noise in and out of the Ring". The Wall Street Journal. December 6, 2013.

External links

• The Official Website of Paul "The Magic Man" Malignaggi
• Paul Malignaggi Official Fan Store
• Biography of Professional Boxer Paulie Malignaggi
• Official Sponsors of "The Magic Man" Malignaggi
• Professional boxing record for Paulie Malignaggi from BoxRec
• Interview
• Magic Man Film Review
• Becoming a People's Champ
• Official Premier Boxing Champions biography