Thurman and Malignaggi trash talk at post-fight press conference

By Boxing News - 03/10/2013 - Comments

thurman43By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated welterweight contender Keith Thurman (20-0, 18 KO’s) made the mistake of addressing WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi at Thurman’s post-fight press conference last Saturday night following his lopsided 12 round unanimous decision victory over former IBF welterweight champion Jan Zaveck at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Thurman ended up finding himself on the receiving end of a verbal thrashing by the much better speaking Malignaggi, and I’m sure Thurman now regrets even mentioning Malignaggi.

Thurman: “Hey Paulie, how long you going to duck me, son? What do I have to do to get you to step inside the ring?”

Malignaggi: “I don’t fight for co-main event money. I’m past that. I’m not even knocking your hustle. It’s nothing personal. I’ve already answered it before, and I’m not even going to mention your name because I’ve got a fight to take care of.”

Thurman: “I don’t have twitter. I’m not a twitter bird like you, son.”

Malignaggi: “Take the d*** out of your mouth.”

Thurman: “You just need more money; I understand it’s a business. Once I get on that stage and I come at you, you better not duck me, son. This is my third appearance [on HBO]. You know the game and I’m coming for you. I will come to Brooklyn and strip you of your titles, son.”

Malignaggi: “Bring the money. Everyone else they offered me was a lot more than you, and I’m a business man like you said. I fight for money. This is prize fighting, you dummy! We don’t fight for free. This is prize fighting. You better somehow learn that now because you’re going to be in a problem soon. I’m not 38-years-old; you fought a punching bag [Jan Zaveck].”

Thurman: “You still have four losses.”

Malignaggi: “[I lost] To better guys than you. To guys better than you. I got paid for those four losses and two world titles.”

Thurman: “I would take [Miguel] Cotto out. I would take Cotto out.”

Malignaggi: “You’re open like, I’m not even going to say. I don’t want to insult you too much. I don’t just tweet. I talk and then I get in the ring and fight. You see this was your moment, post-fight press conference. Now everyone’s looking at me, everybody’s taking pictures of me. Look at you; get the f*** out of here. This is Brooklyn; this is my house.”

Thurman: “I’ll whoop you’re a**!”

Malignaggi: “I know, I know, you’ll whip my a**. All those bums you’ve been putting to sleep; like all those bums you’ve been putting to sleep. I don’t take fights on a weeks notice; I don’t fight 40-year-old men, and when you fight a world champion fights, you’re fighting guys in their prime, homey. You’re not fighting bums like the guy you fought tonight. All the guy needed was Everlast on his forehead because he was a punching bag. That guy came to make 12 rounds. He didn’t come to win. He didn’t come to beat you. You haven’t fought one opponent that came to win the fight. You fought guys that came to go the distance. Nobody comes to beat you. It says world champion on my belt.”

In Fairness to Thurman, he would easily beat Malignaggi if they were to ever fight but it’s highly unlikely they ever will. The two fighters are going in different directions. Malignaggi is considered a paper champion by many boxing fans, and he’s going to lose his next fight against Adrien Broner in June.

I personally feel that Malignaggi is not a good champion. He won his WBA title from Vyacheslav Senchenko, a fighter that many boxing fans saw as a weak paper champion. Malignaggi has defended the title once since picking it up in beating fringe contender Pablo Cesar Cano by a controversial 12 round split decision last year.

The fact that Golden Boy Promotions matched Malignaggi up with a weak contender like Cano suggests that they don’t have a lot of confidence in Malignaggi’s ability to beat the top contenders in the division. Thurman may not be able to beat Malignaggi in an argument, but he obviously would trounce him in the ring if that were to happen. He’d be okay just as long as he didn’t get Malignaggi in an argument because he can’t beat him in that area.

The reality is Malignaggi will be long gone as the WBA welterweight champion by the time Thurman becomes a big name, so there’s no point in Thurman even telling Malignaggi to not duck him. Thurman should be wise enough to see that Malignaggi is basically at the end of his short title reign. He’s not going to hold his strap for very much longer, and it’s highly unlikely he’ll ever win another title. He’s not going to beat Devon Alexander, Tim Bradley, or Floyd Mayweather Jr. That’s not going to happen, and he’s not going to beat any of the light welterweights either.

Put Malignaggi in with Danny Garcia and Malignaggi would be lucky to see the 5th round. He’s basically a paper champion, and Golden Boy did a good job of steering him towards the only champion that he had any chance to beat in Senchenko. There’s no place for Malignaggi to go once Broner beats him in June. He can stick around and maybe fight for a title or two, but he’s never going to win another one, no way.

Unlike Malignaggi, Thurman is actually is a very good welterweight with a promising future if he can continue to make 147. He can probably beat Bradley, Robert Guerrero, and maybe even Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao at this stage. He’s got a future in this weight class. A fight between him and Malignaggi would be a mismatch because Thurman is way too strong and young for Malignaggi. I think Malignaggi realizes this as well, although he’ll never admit and he’ll never agree to fight Thurman. They’re in different class levels. Thurman may not be in Malignaggi’s class as a speaker, but he’ll get the last laugh because he’s likely going to go far and make a lot more money than Malignaggi.



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