"I don't burn bridges; I always like to keep my eyes open to all possibilities.  Zab is always a possibility, along with other fights.  We've brought up Marquez; Golden Boy wasn't too excited about it.  Diaz the third time could be a fight we fight in the meantime.  There's just a lot of possibilities, a lot of good fighters at junior welterweight, so many you really can't name all of them in your head.  The weight class is really stacked with so many possibilities of a good fight.  The fans can really be treated to something good in 2010 in the junior welterweight division… I'm a dangerous fighter.  I can be a more exciting fighter.  I will be a more exciting fighter and I'm a dangerous fighter for any junior welterweight.  Each fight I'll keep proving that, just like I proved it this year," stated former jr. welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi as he talked about his future plans after his dominant win over Juan Diaz. Check it out!

MJ: I saw your fight with Diaz; it was a hell of a performance.  That was dominant. Congrats on the win.

PM: Yeah, thank you.  We were working hard all year, staying focused.  The result showed the kind of progress that we're making.

MJ:  Absolutely. You seemed to completely control him.  I liked your explanation on HBO of standing your ground early.  It seemed to really work.

PM:  He didn't come out with a lot of pressure.  Why am I going to move around the ring if he's not pressuring me?  My legs are a big asset for me, but if a guy is not coming forward, I'm going to move in behind my jab.  I'm going to hold my ground and box him from where I am.  My legs are an asset, but they're not my only asset.  They're my main asset if I need, but I can do other things if I don't need them.  I think the way the fight started, he didn't really come out to really try to fight.  He came out waiting, which kind of surprised me.  Although it did surprise me, he just didn't have the speed to box me from the outside. 

MJ:  When did you know that you had control of the fight?

PM:  Right away.  As soon as he didn't pressure me at all, I knew I was cool.  I was surprised that he wasn't.  Once I realized that he wasn't going to come forward, I said, you know what, we'll take it from here.  I have the faster jab, the height, the quicker reflexes.  You're not going to force me to do anything I don't want to do.  He pretty much gave away three or four rounds; maybe he won one of the first four rounds.  From there, I just never gave him the lead. 

MJ:  Do you think that was an error in their training plan or do you think you just took his heart? 

PM:  I don't know, because the way we devised our main game plan, I believe we would have knocked him out if he would have come forward.  We devised a lot of punches and a lot of different things to do based on his aggression.  In a way, he was lucky he didn't come forward, because I believe he would have been knocked out. 

MJ:  You had him rocked early.

PM:  That was more of an accident than anything else.  Like I said, we devised a lot of the power shots for him to walk into. We devised them according to his aggression.  When he wasn't aggressive, I had to go back to what I'm used to doing, which is boxing off the jab and picking him apart. He got a little careless, walked into something, then you saw he got rocked. That would have been the main gameplan overall, walking him into good power shots throughout the night.  He wasn't aggressive throughout the night to do that.  It only happened once; had he been more aggressive, he probably gets knocked out, looking back now.  Regardless, the mistake was fighting Paulie Malignaggi. At the end of the day, he was never going to beat Paulie Malignaggi.  He didn't win the first time, and he didn't win the second time.  Juan, I respect him as a warrior, he comes to fight.  But I was all wrong for him from the go. 

MJ:  There was no way he was going to outbox you. 

PM:  Yeah, there was no way his team should have let him get into this mess, even in the first fight.  They should have just not fought Paulie Malignaggi.  I think Golden Boy learned their lesson.  Now they don't want to give me Juan Manuel Marquez, so I think they're done trying to use me as an opponent.

MJ:  Do you think there's anyone out there who could outbox you right now?

PM:  Right now, I feel great, man.  I'm 29 years old; I have enough youth left to maintain my prime speed and my prime reflexes. Maybe not too much longer, but long enough to do some damage again.  Unfortunately, I didn't go with Sherif Younan earlier in my career, because Sherif bases everything off my strength.  We force you to fight our fight.  You're not going to make us fight your fight.  You can try to, but we're just too good, too fast and too sharp for anything else.  Having said that, I put myself in that situation for two years with Buddy McGirt, who is a good trainer for certain fighters, but just not for me.  He made me come out of my own style to fight in a style that he wanted.  Basically, he got out of my strengths without anyone forcing me to get out of my strengths.  No opponent forced me out of my strengths; my own team forced me out of my strengths, and the results were disastrous.  I was winning by the skin of my teeth and I had a disastrous loss to Hatton.  I'm still trying to pick up the pieces; I don't know if I'll ever be able to pick up all the pieces.  But moving forward, the performances in 2009 really show that I never went anywhere, I just needed to make a change. 

MJ:  So what's going to be next for the Magic Man?

PM:  We're possibly looking at a big fight, possibly in Madison Square Garden, with Amir Khan.  I think it would have the potential to really do big numbers.  You know, Khan is a superstar in England.  I have a lot of notoriety in the United States as well as in England.  I fought Hatton in England, so I got some notoriety in England as well.  Fans from both sides of the pond can get excited about a fight with me and Khan.  If you do it in the Garden, you almost have a crazy parallel of the Hamed-Kevin Kelley fight in 1997.  Hamed came form England to fight the hot shot New Yorker, Kevin Kelley.  It was a great promotion; they gave the Garden fans a great fight.  It only lasted four rounds, but those guys were each down three times in that fight, I believe.  That was one of the best fights I've ever seen, and it was the first live fight I ever attended.  In a lot of weird ways, this fight with Amir Khan in the Garden will have some crazy parallels to that fight.  Coincidentally, it was the first live fight I ever attended; I was a seventeen year old kid, just enjoying a live night of boxing. 

MJ:  That would be a great fight to get made.  Have you guys started negotiations?

PM:  I believe it's been brought up and talked about.  All parties are interested in it.  I don't foresee anything getting in the way, unless Amir has another fight he has to do in England; if he were to get beat, or I were to get beat in the interim.  But right now, I feel so good. I feel we're both focused.  Amir is doing his thing and I'm doing my thing.  I really feel it would be a good fight for fans on both sides of the Atlantic; it would really excite the fans. 

MJ:  Now I have to throw this out there.  You're talking about an interim fight.  Is there any chance of you sharing the ring with Zab Judah in New York?  That would be a huge fight.

PM:  Yeah, that's always a possibility.  I don't burn bridges; I always like to keep my eyes open to all possibilities.  Zab is always a possibility, along with other fights.  We've brought up Marquez; Golden Boy wasn't too excited about it.  Diaz the third time could be a fight we fight in the meantime.  There's just a lot of possibilities, a lot of good fighters at junior welterweight, so many you really can't name all of them in your head.  The weight class is really stacked with so many possibilities of a good fight.  The fans can really be treated to something good in 2010 in the junior welterweight division. 

MJ:  Can you imagine if they did a tournament like Showtime is doing with the super middleweights?

PM:  That would be incredible, man.  I don't understand why they just don't do it.  I know these things are difficult to make because of all the different promoters, but can you imagine the fights?  The ratings would be through the roof.  I can't see how they wouldn't be through the roof.  A tournament in the junior welterweight division would just be one super fight after another.  I don't care how many non-famous fighters there are, because there are really some really good fighters in this weight class without a lot of notoriety yet, like Devon Alexander.  Tim Bradley is starting to get his notoriety a little bit. This is a chance for all the fighters to get money, advance their careers and get notoriety, because a tournament like this would cause so much buzz.  From the top 12 to top 15, they are all just really good fighters. 

MJ:  You, Bradley, Marquez, Khan, Hatton, and Judah.  Could you picture that? 

PM:  That's barely scratching the tip of the iceberg.  You have Alexander, Maidana, Urango.  Off the top of my head, I just can't name them.  There are so many good fighters. 

MJ:  Now months back, I had heard internet rumors of your name being in the mix for Floyd's comeback fight.  Was there any truth to that?

PM:  I don't think so.  I heard some rumors, but they were never concrete.  I think Floyd and Pacquiao are going to fight each other.  I don't know that Floyd needed a comeback fight.  Marquez was as comeback as it gets, you know what I mean? 

MJ:  Would you move up to a catch-weight to fight Floyd?

PM:  I don't burn bridges.  There's no fight where I say I definitely wouldn't fight.  I think Floyd is the best fighter I've ever seen, but the challenge would always be fun.  I always like new challenges and to test myself against the best.  When I retire, I want to be able to say I fought these great fighters of my generation.  If the opportunity came up to fight Floyd at a catch-weight, as long as I wasn't looked at as too much of an opponent, because I already did that in the Diaz fight, because everything was against me, and although I don't think that would happen fighting Floyd Mayweather, I don't even think the fight would come up, but if it did, I would be interested in it, as always.

MJ:  You just wouldn't fight him in Texas, right?

PM:  I don't think I'll even fly over Texas!

MJ:  I thought that was a terrible decision.

PM:  We're going to leave that in the past.

MJ:  So in 2010, we can expect a tune-up and then Amir Khan, is that probably the direction you're going?

PM:  Don't expect anything, because nothing is really concrete yet.  That's just what is being talked about.  Not so much a tune-up, because I don't believe any fight that HBO pays for is a tune-up; maybe an interim fight or Amir Khan.  I think Amir has to fight in England in March.  I'm not sure what his schedule is.  The opportunity to fight Amir Khan in Madison Square Garden excites me, it should excite Amir, and it should excite the fans.  We have notoriety on both sides of the Atlantic and it's a good fight.

MJ:  Now that you've avenged the most recent loss, is there any chance we'll see you get to avenge the Hatton or Cotto losses?

PM:  I would love to avenge the Ricky Hatton loss, even the Miguel Cotto loss.  Unfortunately, the direction my career took after I lost to Miguel Cotto…it was a mistake on my part, hiring certain people.  I had a manager who winded up not knowing what he was doing, who ended up bringing me to Buddy McGirt, who, like I said, is a good trainer, but just not for Paulie Malignaggi.  I think in the end, those bad decisions cost me looking good. It cost me not only the Hatton loss, but because I lost to Hatton, I had to go to Houston to fight Juan Diaz because there was no other option.  So it cost me the Juan Diaz loss.  Ultimately, I have one loss on my record that I should have and that's Miguel Cotto.  I don't feel ashamed to have lost to Miguel Cotto, because he's the best fighter I ever fought.  My record stands at 27-3. It should stand at 29-1, because I should have never lost to Ricky Hatton.  As you can see what I did in the ring, I should have never lost to Juan Diaz either.  But unfortunately, things happen and you have to live with your mistakes sometimes.

MJ:  Are we ever going to see Paulie on television or in the movies?

PM:  Possibly. It has been brought up to me.  It's not something I would be against.  It excites me.  We'll see what happens.  I try to take it one day at a time, honestly.  When I was younger, I always wanted the whole superstardom thing, going crazy and all that.  Now as I get older, I try to simplify stuff.  Obviously, if a movie gets brought up, I wouldn't turn it down.  I would always be excited about doing extracurricular stuff.  But as I get older, I stopped chasing it as much as I used to.  I kind of just want to concentrate on one thing at a time; right now I'm concentrating on boxing.  If other things come up, I'll concentrate on those things as they come up.

MJ:  I remember seeing you on that Little Mac gig on youtube.  You did a good job with it.

PM:  Exactly. As you can see, I'm not against it, for sure.  I always consider them.

MJ:  Another question, since Tiger Woods has been in the news so much, can you kind of give us an idea of what it's like being a pro athlete, with all these girls chasing you?  How do you keep your focus?

PM:  It really has nothing to do with breaking your focus.  I mean, Tiger Woods still won like a million tournaments while he was hanging out with all these girls.  Girls will only break your focus if you allow them to.  Yeah, being a pro athlete, you get chased by more girls; you get chased by more people in general.  It's funny to hear people criticize an athlete or criticize people in the public spotlight when, if they were in the same spotlight, they probably would do the same if not worse.  Mot of them would at least, not all of them.  Most people criticizing wish they had the lifestyle of us athletes, wish they could get chased by all these girls, wish they could get their asses kissed by complete strangers every day.  And that's not the thing.  I'm not walking around with a chip on my shoulder, because I'm appreciative of what I have in my life, as all athletes are.  But there are jealous people and, unfortunately, most of society is jealous of people that are athletes, actors and people that have a well-off living and live better than them.  I think that's the case with the Tiger Woods situation.  Did Tiger Woods do the correct thing?  Absolutely not!  You have to say he made a mistake, but he's sorry for his mistakes; he's trying to move on from his mistakes with his family.  He should be given the privacy to take care of it with his family.  People are jealous, man.  These people who would probably do the same thing in his shoes are the first people to criticize, because they can't.  They can wish they can, but they can't.  They have no idea what it's like to have ten models a night chasing them.  They have no idea and they never will.  They wish they could; they can dream about it in their dreams.

MJ:  With you being 29, what are your career goals from this point forward?

PM:  I think I have one more title run left in me.  I'm 29 and I don't want to box until I'm too old.  I have a timeline set to for maybe 33 years old, give or take a year.  As long as money keeps coming in, I'll keep fighting.  I appreciate all the support, especially all the support I've been given this year; it's just amazing.  Obviously, I'm always a fighter they love to hate, as you can probably tell, people love to boo me.  Yet, I've also gotten a lot of support.  People love to hate me; they love to wish bad upon me, but of course I've brought some of that on myself by the cocky, arrogant attitude I display in the ring.  For those people that do get to know me, they know I'm not like that in real life.  For the fans that don't get to know me, but are still my fans, I appreciate that even more.  Regardless of anything, I've had a good comeback year in '09.  I think I can move on to bigger and better things in the next couple years before I call it a night in this sport.

MJ:  I'll tell you this.  Even though you don't get a lot of knockouts, you do make for very exciting fights. 

PM:  Yeah, at times, if I get the right style in front of me.  I think the boring fights that I had were more me not being sharp.  And why wasn't I sharp?  I went into it earlier in the interview.  That Paulie Malignaggi is gone.  You'll never see that Paulie Malignaggi again.  The changes on my team have been made and I'm a dangerous fighter.  I can be a more exciting fighter.  I will be a more exciting fighter and I'm a dangerous fighter for any junior welterweight.  Each fight I'll keep proving that, just like I proved it this year.

MJ:  I wanted to ask you about this, since you tell it straight about the boxing politics, with this Floyd-Manny fight, they were going back and forth with Vegas and Dallas.  It looks like Vegas got it.  What's your take on that?

PM:  I'm glad that Vegas gets it.  I don't think Texas deserves any big names at all.  With the track record they have, it's not just me vs. Juan Diaz, they have a list that you could probably write a book about with the terrible decisions.  The state commission is horrible, based on that alone, not to say that you might get a bad decision with Mayweather-Pacquiao, it has nothing to do with that.  It just has to do with people like that not being rewarded with getting a mega-fight.  They just don't deserve it, until they clean up their act over the course of a long period of time, not one or two months.  Until they do that, I don't think they deserve any big fights.  I'm glad that Vegas is going to get the fight.

MJ:  What if it were New Orleans vs Vegas?  How is it that Vegas gets all the big fights, when it could maybe be in a bigger stadium in another city?

PM:  How that works is Vegas has the most money to offer for the fight.  What happens is that the promoter takes it to a place like the MGM Grand, because those casinos pay the most amount of money for the fights.  Ultimately, to afford a Floyd-Manny fight, you have to have money coming in from as many places as possible to be able to afford that kind of promotion and to be able to pay the fighters the money they want. to be able to afford alot of things.  You know, the pot gets bigger when a casino holds the sponsorship. Although the pot is big regardless in a mega-fight like this, I guess you can never have enough money, right?

MJ:  Is there anything you'd like to say to the FightHype.com fans in closing?

PM:  I told my fans, I've said it before, that I have to thank them, because I think the fans were an intricate part of me getting this rematch with Juan Diaz.  I was able to repay them by doing my thing and beating him handily.  I was glad that the pressure was really put on by the fans, and the media in general to the promoters and the networks, to really make sure that the right thing was done.  The right thing was to give me the rematch.  I'm glad I was able to repay their efforts by doing what I was supposed to do in the first fight and showing that I deserved the decision in the first fight by dominating more in the second fight.