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Paulie Malignaggi on BYB X, Dan Hardy fight offer, and More
Paulie Malignaggi is a former multi-time world champion in boxing, former bare-knuckle boxer, and nowadays is an analyst for both sports.
I spoke with Malignaggi ahead of his broadcasting work at BYB X. Excerpts from our chat are below.
Paulie Malignaggi
Having recent bout offers in bare-knuckle and gloved boxing for Malignaggi
“I was offered recently an exhibition boxing bout against Dan Hardy in England. Former UFC fighter Dan Hardy. Which was kind of interesting but at the end of the day, I just felt like it would take away from my schedule that I had with my commentary gigs. My commentary is sort of what I’m trying to stay focused on right now.”
“They gave me a decent offer actually (for Hardy). Honestly, it was a cool scenario all around. It was less risk and would have been with 16-ounce gloves. It was definitely less risk. I come from a life where I had to pay people to spar in 16-ounce gloves…. So to be able to be paid to do a 16-ounce glove sparring match would have been interesting. I was offered it with no headgear. Listen, I can’t say it didn’t get my attention. But what I figured to myself was if I take this, I’m going to keep getting other offers and I’m going to keep getting sucked back into this.”
BYB X on May 28th in Biloxi, Mississippi, and embarking towards some newer territory
“That’s a cool one, man. We’re going just outside of Florida. So it’s actually exciting to be part of that was well. I’ve been part of BYB for I’d say about a year now. It’s been a growing brand and like I said, it’s exciting fights. Really I’m excited about the possibility of it growing outside the state of Florida and kind of getting more notoriety.”
BYB X
Paulie Malignaggi continued, “We already know there are bare-knuckle fans out there. So it’s just a matter of wanting them to know how exciting BYB can be with our Trigon. Also, the fact that we’ll get more notoriety will also allow us to contract more fighters to this stable.”
The BYB heavyweight title bout between Tony Lopez and Jordan Mitchell
“I saw him (Lopez) a couple of times. Saw him with Joey Beltran in BKFC and now I saw him in the last fight against (Josh) Burns (at BYB 9). He is very, very savvy. I’ll tell you, he’s just special. He is a savvy guy. You can just see veteran written all over his style. Very, very exciting guy to watch. At least for somebody like me who has always been a cerebral fighter. He really, really makes it an intelligence-based fight even inside the small Trigon… Figuring out a way to pick Burns apart and really looked like a champion doing it.”
