Paulie Malignaggi isn’t dead yet — and he intends to prove it by reviving his boxing career.
The Bensonhurst brawler steps back into the ring after a 13-month layoff to face Boston native Danny O’Connor on May 29 at Barclays Center. The bout is the co-main event on a card headlined by welterweight contenders Amir Khan and Chris Algieri that will be broadcast live on Spike TV as part of its Premier Boxing Champions series.
Malignaggi said the prospect of getting back into the ring was invigorating.
“I feel like I’m alive and I want to live,” Malignaggi said. “For me, living is feeling that adrenaline and feeling that rise and rush of competing in the ring. I’m a competitive person. I’m not dead. I don’t need to live like I’m dead.”
The 34-year-old Malignaggi, who is 1–2 in his last three fights, said the urge to return to the ring gradually built during his layoff. Initially seeing the brutality of fights from the other side as a successful boxing commentator kept him away. Slowly he began to focus on the fan reaction and the adrenaline, and wanted to experience competing again. He wasn’t ready to hang up his gloves after being stopped in the fourth round by Shawn Porter in April 2014.
“It wasn’t about, I don’t want to go out on a loss,” Malignaggi said. “It was more about, I still got something left.”
He insists that his training for the fight has not hindered his performance as a broadcaster, and nor have his television duties hindered his ability to train. Malignaggi worked the megafight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, but still got in a training session or two in each day. That fact only reinforced to him that he still has the passion to compete in the ring.
“If I really didn’t want to do this, I would just do the broadcasting and I would half [-do] my training,” Malignaggi said.
This is arguably the biggest fight in O’Connor’s career as he takes on a former world champion on live television. The 30-year-old southpaw has won two of his last three fights and is making his first appearance at Barclays Center. O’Connor (25–2–0, 9 knockouts) is looking forward to proving himself against such an accomplished fighter.
“That’s what I have been working my whole career for, is that shot at something big and to be able to match my skills up with someone like Paul and his resume,” O’Connor said. “That’s what excites me.”
Malignaggi (33–6–0, 7 knockouts) plans on tempering his opponent’s excitement by winning the bout, but he won’t say yet what will be next for him. He still wants to see how he feels and looks against O’Connor. Malignaggi will go with his gut from there, just like he did when choosing to return for this bout.
“The main motivator is to feel alive,” Malignaggi said. “I can be dead when I’m six feet under. I’m not dead yet so I don’t have to live like that. Right now I wan to feel that rush of adrenaline again.”
