"You guys already know what I think. When it comes to boxing, I'm always right, even when I'm wrong, and this case proves it," stated former jr. welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi when asked what he thought about Manny Pacquiao's unwillingness to comply to Olympic-style random drug testing for the highly-anticipated clash with Floyd Mayweather Jr. With the fight now in jeopardy due to both sides unable to reach an agreement regarding the testing procedures, Malignaggi is now being considered as a possible replacement opponet for Pacquiao.
In the past, Malignaggi has been extremely vocal about his opinion that Pacquiao may have used performance enhancing drugs. "There's something fishy about Manny Pacquiao, man, and for a lot of reasons...If the situation is what I think it is, God, Manny Pacquiao will not lose to any of these welterweight," he commented during a recent appearance on the OnTheGrindBoxing radio show. "The level we have of testing in boxing is not really that deep. I mean, we have urine tests on the day of the fight and we don't have much else...there's things that don't come up in drug tests. There's ways to beat drug tests."
Despite his strong opinion, however, it appears Malignaggi is still willing to step into the ring with Pacquiao without requiring the same type of Olympic-style random testing that Mayweather requested. "Manny Pacquiao is the first guy in history, and he might be the special thing that everybody says he is, he might be," he continued. "The first guy in history to go up in weight and knock out more people as he goes up in weight than he did when he was smaller. He might be that special person. Me, I think that looks a little fishy. I think that's a little bit fishy."
Whether or not Malignaggi will actually get an opportunity to find out if something is "fishy" remains to be seen, as there's a slim chance that the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao mega-fight could still happen if both sides can reach an agreement. If they don't, however, it will be interesting to see if Malignaggi's opinion is just as strong should he indeed be offered the fight.
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