By Jason Kim: Lou Dibella, the promoter for former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-4, 5 KO’s), says he thinks that the 29-year-old Malignaggi might consider retirement, according to Sportsillustrated.com. Malignaggi was stopped in the 11th round last Saturday night by WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan in a one-sided fight at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Malignaggi was never remotely competitive with Khan and looked slow on his feet and unable to move around the ring like he used to.

Dibella says “Paulie never in this game to be an opponent. That’s not what he wants to be. I think he saw that he doesn’t have the same quickness he had three years ago.” Malignaggi, at one time one of the best fighters in the light welterweight division, has seemed to be on the slide since being stopped by Ricky Hatton two years ago in an 11th round TKO defeat in November 2008. The division has gotten since then with fighters like Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana coming into the forefront.

Malignaggi may think that he’s good enough to compete with those fighters, but he may be grossly overestimating his own talent. Besides being schooled by Khan for 11 rounds, Malignaggi struggled in splitting a pair of fights with the short 5’6” Juan Diaz last year. While there’s an argument to be made that Malignaggi should have won both of those fights instead of just one, the fact of the matter is he didn’t exactly dominate a fighter that he should have.

Diaz would likely be badly overmatched against Maidana, Bradley, and Alexander. At this point, Malignaggi would likely have problems with contenders like Victor Cayo. That’s okay if Malignaggi doesn’t mind being a gatekeeper in the light welterweight division. However, he doesn’t seem like the type of person that would settle for just being a contender without much chance of winning a title. If Malignaggi gets a shot at Alexander or Bradley in the future, I can see Malignaggi taking an even worse beating than he did against Khan and would probably end up getting stopped in both fights.

Dibella thinks that Malignaggi could go into broadcasting. It’s not hard to see why. Malignaggi talks fast and is dead on accurate with analyzing fighters. He’s also blunt and says it like it is. In some ways, he’s better than many of the top boxing analysts already even without any experience. However, if Malignaggi stays in boxing for a few more years and continues to take beatings like he did against Khan, he could end up starting to slur his words before long. That could make it tough for him to get a job.