Paulie Malignaggi didn’t expect another fight coming this soon after he was forced to pull out of his last one in May, but he says he is ready to fight Danny Garcia at Barclays Center on Aug. 1. “This opportunity just fell into my lap,” the Bensonhurst native said. “It was unexpected, but I am all about competing against the best. As surprised as I was, it was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to.”
Malignaggi, who contemplated retirement after his last fight, was supposed to make a return to the ring after a 13-month layoff on May 29 at Barclays Center. The matchup against Danny O’Connor never happened because the Brooklyn boxer suffered a cut above his eye in training camp.
A tougher bout now awaits him against Garcia, a junior welterweight world champion, moving up in weight class.
“I am just really feeling blessed with an opportunity that I didn’t see coming my way after pulling out of the O’Connor fight,” Malignaggi said.
This fight will be the heavy-handed Garcia’s (30–0, 17 KOs) fifth bout at Barclays Center and Malignaggi’s (33–6, 7 Kos) fourth fight there. The fight will also be Garcia’s first as a welterweight (147 pounds). It’s a step up that the Philadelphia native, who beat Lamont Peterson in a majority decision back in April at Barclays, thinks will help his performance.
“For the first time in a long time, I can worry about training to get better instead of training to lose weight,” Garcia said. “I am going to feel a lot stronger at 147.”
Malignaggi was ready to hang up his gloves after technical knockout loss in the fourth round to Shawn Porter in Washington, DC, on April 19 of last year.
“I was thinking, ‘you know what, I am done,’ ” he said.
But eventually, he started to miss the ring.
“I get antsy,” Malignaggi said. “As time went by and I started working out again, I started realizing it was something I missed and it was something I was still craving.”
The 34-year-old Malignaggi said winning this fight is critical to continuing his career at the highest level. He isn’t as patient as he used to be, and he saw this bout as a chance to immediately catapult his name back into title contention instead of slowly working his way there.
“The life of my professional boxing career, to continue, this is a must-win for sure,” Malignaggi said. “At this level, you always feel like it is must-win, but in reality, to be a must-must-win, I feel like the burden falls on me instead of Danny.”
One thing that will help him is that the layoff gave Malignaggi an opportunity to rest while not thinking about his next bout.
“I gave myself plenty of time to rejuvenate a little bit before I got back in the gym,” he said. “Then I decided, you know, that I miss this — I want to go back in the gym. I think the change of my mind was a good thing.”
Once the decision to return was made, Malignaggi, who is also a well-regarded boxing commentator, spent the most time at the gym he has in his whole career. Having the O’Connor fight fall through further extended his training period.
“I haven’t trained this consistently in a decade,” Malignaggi said. “Since I fought Miguel Cotto, I started making pretty good money — after that, I haven’t stayed all year in the gym. I do feel sharpness in the gym. I do feel the timing is really good, and my weight has come down.”
He will be joined on the card by Brownsville boxer Danny Jacobs, who defends his middleweight world title against veteran Sergio Mora, the most seasoned competitor Jacobs has faced in his career.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge of testing myself against a slick, crafty veteran in Sergio Mora,” Jacobs said. “I’m just trying to get that experience. It’s important to me as young champion.”
