"For me living is feeling that adrenaline rush, the rush of being in the ring and competing. I'm a competitive person. That's more what was the motivator. I'm not dead, so I don't need to live like I'm dead. Some people choose to live like they're dead. I don't need to do that. I can feel life. Nothing makes me feel more alive than having the adrenaline of being in a boxing ring in front of a packed crowd...I've known Danny for quite some time. Obviously he hasn't fought at the level that I have. The experience is in my favor," stated two-division former world champion Paulie Malignaggi, who spoke to the media during a recent conference call to promote his upcoming May 29 clash with welterweight contender Danny O'Connor. Check out what else he had to say!
Paulie Malignaggi: I'm happy to be here. I'm excited about fighting at Barclays Center again. I've gotten the desire to fight again over the past year little by little. It was almost nothing and then the desire started growing more and more. Once you sign up for a fight, you see the event in front of you, you start seeing things like the teleconference and all that we're doing now, it starts to resonate in your mind that it's coming up, it's close, so the excitement kind of builds. I'm happy to be a part of this event, part of this show and everybody involved with it.
Q: Paulie, you've gotten off to a great start in your broadcasting career. Does this take anything away from what you're achieving in broadcasting or slow your development that way, or do you feel like you can manage both things side by side?
P. Malignaggi: This has been a training camp where I'm kind of getting it all down pat together. It's basically a training camp where I haven't had as much work to do as I have this time around in the past. The reason I still have the passion for this is I still make time to train every day. I still find the time to prepare adequately every day.
It's not always easy with the broadcasting. Throughout the course of my career, 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.
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 am more mature. I can handle it more and compartmentalize things more. The passion shows in and of itself. If I didn't really want to do this, trust me, I would do the broadcasting, I would half-ass it on my training. Last week was challenging, but every day I was able to get in my training somehow, some way. One workout a day, sometimes two workouts a day.
That shows me I have the passion. When you don't want to train, but you still go out and do it, you have that victory in your mind, you want to persevere and excel. I'm the type of person that wants to do that. In the end, after this fight, I plan on winning the fight and looking good. I've been feeling good in the training camp. After the fight, I'm just taking it one fight at a time. I'm not looking past Danny. It's a little bit different in my career right now, but at the same time I'm still enjoying the ride.
Q: At some point when you were doing the broadcasting, was there something about being on the sidelines that kind of inspired the feelings that you'd like to be back on the other side of the ropes again? Was it a particular fight or moment?
P. Malignaggi: I wouldn't say it was anything in particular. I don't say that was part of the reason, I guess. At first it was part of the reason why I didn't want to fight again. I would see these fights from close range, see the violence, some crazy exchanges. "Man, better these guys than me. I'm done."
Then little by little, as I started feeling better, I would start seeing the same kind of stuff, and I would focus on the crowd reaction, the adrenaline these fighters are feeling. I was starting to slowly change my thinking pattern. It was starting to slowly become more like, I got to feel this again, I got to feel that rush again. It's something missing in my life.
The transition kind of came slowly. I don't think it was one particular moment or situation, it just kind of came slowly and developed. At first I got back in the gym and wanted to keep my weight down. Before you know it, you start to hit a couple bags. As with any boxer in general, you start to hit the bag, you start to loosen, before you know it, you start to feel it. I suppose when you retire from boxing you should stay away from the boxing gym, because otherwise you're going to want to fight.
Q: Paulie, how much of a factor was the result of your previous fight in motivating you to kind of come back and have a chance to go out with a win if, in fact, that's what ultimately occurs here?
P. Malignaggi: My last fight had no bearing on any of this. The only bearing in my life that fight had on me was the decision not to fight anymore. When I went into the fight, I didn't decide it was going to be my last fight. I wasn't thinking of any of that stuff at all.
When the result happened, I was more so thinking, okay maybe this is it. It wasn't really that particular result as far as me not being able to accept it. It was more so, before the Porter fight, I hadn't looked bad. I had a split decision lost against Broner. I had a dominant victory, but I had one bad night. If I really want to chalk up my entire career to that one bad night and be done, or do I give myself another shot?
It wasn't about 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.
I think people are going to draw their own conclusions. The Porter fight had no bearing on what I wanted to do. I felt like, I'm alive and I want to live. For me living is feeling that adrenaline rush, the rush of being in the ring and competing. I'm a competitive person. That's more what was the motivator. I'm not dead, so I don't need to live like I'm dead. Some people choose to live like they're dead. I don't need to do that. I can feel life. Nothing makes me feel more alive than having the adrenaline of being in a boxing ring in front of a packed crowd.
Q: Paulie, depending on how you look at this fight, if you perform to your highest capabilities, if you win handily, what's next for you? Do kick back into that mode where you go challenge for a title, fight one of the better fighters in the division again?
P. Malignaggi: Honestly, it hasn't even crossed my mind. I want to see not only how I look and feel in the fight. There are a lot of things I have to decide. I may look good and say, you know what, I'm good to go again. I may look good and say, you know what, this is taking away too much time from other things I want to enjoy in my life. I may need to feel this adrenaline rush again. I don't know. I haven't given it that much thought yet. I'm only focused on Danny O'Connor right now. I'm focused on May 29th. 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. 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.
Q: You said you started training, you were feeling good, had no problem training. How much fun are you having again with boxing? Do you feel rejuvenated?
P. Malignaggi: I enjoy a good challenge in life, a challenge that I enjoy. If you put me in a chemistry class, it will be a challenge, but I don't think I'll enjoy it too much. Know what I'm saying? Boxing is a challenge to me, but it's a challenge I enjoy. I enjoy pushing my body and mind to the limits and seeing if I can succeed and testing myself. Of course, I've been enjoying it.
Sometimes people look at me and tell you, why would you want to fight again? You're good. You're set. You have good money coming in.
It's not about the money. Well, obviously it's always about the money. That's not the main motivator. The motivator is to feel alive. I can be dead when I'm six feet under. Right now I don't want to feel like that. I want to feel that rush of adrenaline again, feel alive. While I can still do it, I will do it.
Q: Paulie, what made this particular fight the right opportunity to get back into the ring? What does the New York/Boston rivalry add to this fight?
P. Malignaggi: The opportunity to be back in the ring could have came against anyone. The New York/Boston rivalry, I've thought of it a couple times over the camp. It's not Boston/New York, Italian/Irish. It's like 50 years too late. If it's 1955 instead of 2015, you're going to have this in a huge stadium, everybody would be into it. Everyone would be going crazy It could be a real cool event. Not that it's not going to be a cool event anyway. What I'm saying is the perception of the event is different now than it would have been back in the day when the Italian and Irish rivalry, New York and Boston rivalry might have been more. It gives it a fall-back feel to me and that's good for me.
Q: What do you know about Danny O'Connor? He hasn't fought a lot of the top-level opponents that you have. What do you see as your strengths and his weaknesses in this fight?
P. Malignaggi: I've known Danny for quite some time. Obviously he hasn't fought at the level that I have. The experience is in my favor. I knew he had a good amateur career. He's a solid competitor. He has a national Golden Gloves title and he was an Olympic alternate. When you have that kind of amateur career, you expect yourself to break through in the pros.
I had a good amateur career, I was a national championship as well. I remember turning pro with the expectation I would have a successful pro career as well. At that point you're used to winning and winning at a high level.
I feel like Danny has that expectancy of himself. Maybe it's come a little slower. I feel this is an opportunity for him because he has a chance to finally show all the things he had to show in the amateurs where he was a good amateur and was considered a top guy.
For that reason I can't take him lightly, and I don't take him lightly because I know what he's feeling. I know what it's like to have that successful amateur career, go into your first professional fight and have those goose bumps and be ready for it. I kind of know what he's feeling, what's going through his mind, both the good and the bad. In that way I guess I have the advantage because I'm prepared for that thing because I've already been through it. You can never underestimate me. I'm a hungry fighter and Danny's a hungry fighter.
Q: Are you able to focus on him as an opponent in this fight rather than all these broader questions about your career arc and all that type of thing?
P. Malignaggi: Yes, of course. I'm preparing for a slick boxer named Danny O'Connor. He can become aggressive at times. He's a southpaw, can sit back on the back foot sometimes. He might bring the kind of fight I intend to bring, my game plan. Every day I'm in the gym working on that.
Although the distractions are nice to talk about, in the end I'm working on the exact plan in the gym every day.
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