By Chris Williams: In an interview at Boxingtalk, former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (25-2, 5 KOs) is apparently out of love with boxing, fighting more for the money rather than the sport of it. Malignaggi says in the interview “I don’t really have the desire, as far as love of the game, it’s more about the paycheck I can make.” Could it be that Malignaggi is perhaps bitter after having been knocked out in the 11th round by Ricky Hatton on November 22nd? It couldn’t be that, could it?
If that’s all it took to take away Malignaggi’s love for the sport, then it was bound to happen a long time ago, because with his lack of punching power it was only a matter of time before he took another beating, like the one he suffered against Miguel Cotto, and was stopped.
Malignaggi apparently is still coming to terms with his loss to Hatton, saying “What you saw in my last fight isn’t Paulie Malignaggi.” I guess it was someone else, eh? The excuse sounds familiar, though, reminding me of the same excuse Kelly Pavlik made after losing to Bernard Hopkins. Instead of taking responsibility and owning up to the loss, it seems as if the new way of disowning it is by saying “that wasn’t me.” Well, it if wasn’t you, then you had 12 rounds to make it you, and if you couldn’t materialize by then, maybe it’s because you fought a better fighter.
Malignaggi, from the sounds of his statements, it seems as if Hatton did some major damage in dominating Malignaggi through 11 and then ultimately stopping him. That’s too bad, because if it wasn’t Hatton, it would be someone like Ricardo Torres, Kendall Holt, Timothy Bradley or Victor Ortiz. Malignaggi was barely holding it together in the past two years, winning close decisions over Lovemore N’dou and Hernan Ngoudjo, both of which looked to be losses for Malignaggi.
If he’s struggling with those fighters, then that’s not a good sign for the future. The worse thing for Malignaggi is that Hatton may not even be in the top four of light welterweights. Bradley, Torres, Ortiz, Holt and Peterson are all probably better than Hatton at this point.
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