Photo by Al Bello
On Friday, May 29, 2015, Paulie Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs) returns to ring against Danny O’Connor (29-2, 9 KOs) on the undercard of Khan-Algieri in a 10-round Welterweight fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The fight will be televised on Spike TV in the U.S.
Malignaggi, 35, has been dividing his time between a career in broadcasting and his upcoming fight with O’Connor. With a busy schedule like his, one can imagine how difficult it may be.
“It’s not always easy with the broadcasting. You have to fight, shut everything down and focus on the fight. It’s not like that anymore. That kind of comes with age, you kind of get into new things in your life and whatnot,” said Malignaggi in a recent conference call with members of the media.
A distracted fighter isn’t the most effective fighter, but Malignaggi says that he’s in a stage in his life where balancing two careers is manageable.
“If it was a couple years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it. I’m at a place in my life where I can handle it more and compartmentalize things more,” said Malignaggi.
The Brooklyn native is coming off a more than one-year layoff. Malignaggi last fought Shawn Porter in April 2014 for the IBF Welterweight title, and was violently stopped in the fourth round.
Many thought Malignaggi would retire, but being around the sport of boxing inspired him to fight once again.
“I suppose when you retire from boxing you should stay away from the boxing gym, because otherwise you’re going to want to fight,” said Malignaggi.
Many thought he would retire after being stopped so badly against Porter, but Malignaggi says he doesn’t want to retire on a loss. “I don’t want to go out on a loss, I have more left. The Porter fight doesn’t take away from what I did in the past two or three years. You have a fight like that, take a year off, people expect that’s where you are and that’s it,” said Malignaggi.
Nevertheless, Malignaggi will have to show a lot of he wants another shot a title. When asked about his plans after May 29, Malignaggi said he didn’t put much though to it.
“I’m only focused on Danny O’Connor right now. I feel like those are possible things that would be crossing my mind, but in reality I haven’t given it enough thought to really have made that kind of decision,” said Malignaggi.
“I don’t know yet. I’m focused only on the fight right now. So anything post May 29th I’ll decide post May 29th,” he concluded.
