"I've relished that kind of underdog role, that kind of back to the wall role. It's brought the best out of me in a lot of situations. There's different performances that show a little bit of me and are satisfying in their own way, each a little bit differently...I think people respect the fact that I've been able to do all that and still stayed relevant because somebody who goes off the way I do a lot of times ends up blackballed or ends up being out of the inner circle, like I said, or just doesn't get any chances or whatnot...I'm not scared to go against the grain, but yet I still remain relevant. I think a lot of people want to be like that. I think people respect that because a lot of people fear going against the grain, a lot of people fear going against the flow," stated two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi, who talked more about his boxing career and discussed some of the highs and lows that ultimately put him back into a position to challenge for another world title. Check it out!
BT: Looking back, which fight do you think has been your best performance?
PM: Um, probably my two title-winning fights; Lovemore NDou, the first fight, and when I fought Senchenko. It's easy to look at NDou afterwards, but the first NDou fight, nobody had dominated NDou like that, you know. He had been in there with some world-class fighters. He was one of those guys that came up the hard way as well. Nobody had taken care of him either, so he had a couple of losses, but he had always been in rough fights with everyone. He gave Cotto hell before me; a very close fight with Cotto before Cotto ever won a world title. He had basically beaten Sharmba Mitchell, but didn't get the decision. I remember thinking like, "Man, this guy's a rough customer. Nobody beats this guy cleanly." So the fact that I was able to dominate him was a blessing, you know, and I think that was one of my better performances. And then the Senchenko fight, nobody really knew a lot about Senchenko. He was this undefeated former Olympian out of the Ukraine. It's easy to look back now and say, "Oh, well he was limited." Well, you know, was he limited or did I make him look limited because at the end of the day, nobody was going over there to beat him. At the time when I fought him, he was undefeated. If he was that limited, I didn't see anybody going over there in a hurry to try and take the belt if he was that limited, you know what I'm sayin', but I had to go do that. And the way I did it, I felt like it was my masterpiece, you know. It's funny because that fight, I told myself, "I'm going to get robbed tonight. I'm going to get robbed in this fight. I started camp knowing that I'm going to get robbed and I'm not going to be able to get any TV dates when I get back from the Ukraine because I can't get any TV dates now. I gotta win this fight in order to get TV dates in America and I can't do that." I told myself, "I better go over there and put on my best performance ever. I'm gonna go over there and be the best that I can be and when I get robbed, I'm going to have to retire because I'm not coming back to any money in America because if American networks aren't giving me TV dates now, they're definitely not going to give me a TV date if I lose to Senchenko." So I said I'm going to go out on my best performance and people are always going to wonder, "Man, that kid Paulie, he could fight." That was my goal. That was my goal when I went to Ukraine was to make people realize I could fight. I said, "You know what? I'm gonna get robbed, but when I come home, people are always going to wonder, because I'm not going to fight again, but people are going to wonder, 'Man, that kid really could fight though. I wonder what would've happened had they gave him that decision and he would've came home.'" As it turns out, I stopped Senchenko, I got the belt, and I didn't have to stop fighting, you know. I put on my best performance.
BT: Were they your best performances from a technical standpoint, a satisfaction standpoint, or both?
PM: They were definitely good technical performances; they were the most satisfying for sure because they were the two world title fights I won. I think there's fights where you really show your character and people can really understand who you are as a man, not just as a fighter. My first Miguel Cotto fight, I don't think people realized I had that much fighter in me. I mean, they should've realized it because I was telling people at the time, "Dude, I've been finishing more than half of my fights with broken hands. I'm still finishing fights and winning them." That's character in and of itself, but the problem with that is all these morons don't see that your hand is swollen like crazy underneath the glove. If you don't see damage, you can't respect damage. Unfortunately, that's the ignorance of a boxing fan and a boxing critic. So going into the Cotto fight, there was a question about my toughness when there shouldn't have been because a guy that was finishing fights and winning fights the way I was winning them, with broken hands constantly, you know, his heart shouldn't have been questioned, but it was. So I think the Cotto fight showed a lot of character because you could see the damage and I still fought through it. I think going into Juan Diaz's hometown and putting on the performance I did shows character. It's tough to go into somebody's hometown with a rough crowd like that and still be able to fight in a calm way and execute your game plan. And I did that again in the Ukraine with Senchenko, you know; go into the fire and put on a good performance. I think that shows character. And also, early on in my career, I went up to New Hampshire and fought a guy from Boston up there. I don't know if everybody remembers that fight, but it was on ESPN2 against Kevin Watts. I knocked him out in front of his crowd. You know, I went up there with Yankee stuff on my shorts, also wondering whether I would get robbed or not because it was his hometown basically, you know; booed like crazy and I went and knocked him out. In a way, a lot of times, I've relished that kind of underdog role, that kind of back to the wall role. It's brought the best out of me in a lot of situations. There's different performances that show a little bit of me and are satisfying in their own way, each a little bit differently.
BT: Teddy Atlas talks a lot about a fighter's mentality. Would you say that the character of a fighter is just as important as their physical attributes?
PM: People don't understand the character you have to have to be a fighter. It's underrated because people are very simple-minded. They look at, "Oh, you need this much speed or you need this much power, or good reflexes or a good technical foundation." You need all those things. All those things are great, but a fighter needs character. Because a fighter has all those things and he has no character, he's still not going anywhere, bro. You need character. As a man, as an individual, you need character. If you don't have any character, at the first sign when the shit hits the fan, you know what you do? You fold like a fucking beach chair, dude. You know what I'm saying? That's the difference, man. People don't understand that. People look at all these other intangibles, but they don't understand how important character is. I realized that very early in my career. I realized that very early when I started boxing. This shit is not easy, man. This shit is tough; a tough way to make a living. You need character. Character lays the foundation for all of it.
BT: If you weren't as vocal as you've been on a lot of different subjects throughout the years, do you think your career would still be as relevant as it is today?
PM: I don't know. That's a good question, Ben. I don't know. I think in the moment, fighters are scared to be vocal because they're scared to get blackballed or they're scared to be eliminated from the inner circle of the powers that be so to speak, you know. I think, in the moment, I'm always a very emotional guy; in the moment, when I've reacted, I didn't think of those things because had I thought of those things, I may have kept my mouth shut, you know what I'm sayin'. Unfortunately for me, I think out loud. Fortunately or unfortunately, it can be both ways, you know; I think out loud, so a lot of times, I don't censor what I'm thinking in my mind. I just say it. It could've cost me, but it was a chance I took I guess, you know. I mean, in the moment, don't get me wrong, I don't even realize I'm taking chances. In the moment, I'm just going with the flow, you know, and then afterwards, I'm like, "Damn, yo. That could've been bad." But, you know, I think people respect the fact that I've been able to do all that and still stayed relevant because somebody who goes off the way I do a lot of times ends up blackballed or ends up being out of the inner circle, like I said, or just doesn't get any chances or whatnot. And there's been moments where I was out totally. I mean, there's been moments where people were looking for excuses not to bring me back. Yo, after I lost to Khan, I couldn't get a TV date with anybody. Luckily for me, Golden Boy had pay-per-views where they would stick me on the pay-per-view undercard where I could get some television exposure underneath some of the pay-per-view undercards. I fought underneath Bernard Hopkins/Chad Dawson 1; I opened up the pay-per-view. And I fought underneath Marcos Maidana and Erik Morales; I opened up that pay-per-view. Television networks weren't taking a chance on me anymore probably because I'm a bigmouth and I had lost the Khan fight and it was an excuse for them to say, "Okay, now we can get rid of this bigmouth." So I had to go to Ukraine and do it the hard way, but when I came back and won the Senchenko fight in the Ukraine, now I left everybody no choice; they kind of had to put me back on, you know. I think, in that regard, it earned a lot of people's respect in that I don't have to always go with the flow; sometimes I'm not scared to go against the grain, but yet I still remain relevant. I think a lot of people want to be like that. I think people respect that because a lot of people fear going against the grain, a lot of people fear going against the flow. I don't do it just for the sake of doing it. I do it because a lot of times, I just want to say what I feel I should say, you know what I'm sayin'. I'm not going against the grain on purpose. Sometimes I go with the grain because I agree when it goes with the grain. Sometimes I disagree and I go against the grain. I think people respect the fact that when I go against the grain, I'm not scared to do it, and yet I'm still relevant. You take a stance when you do it, but when you remain relevant doing things like that and you're still alive at the end of all of it and you're still kicking as far as your career's going at the end of all of that, people will look back and say, "Wow, man. I gotta respect that. The kid's got some balls." So I think that's why now, all of the hardships that I've gone through, all of the tough times that I've gone through, all the quote-unquote negativity, it's kind of paid off because now I'm in a good situation; I'm in the best situation that I've been in my whole career.
CLICK HERE FOR PART 1 OF THIS IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH TWO-DIVISION WORLD CHAMPION PAULIE MALIGNAGGI
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