PAULIE MALIGNAGGI DISCUSSES FUTURE FIGHTING CAREER: "I CAN'T SAY NO AND I CAN'T SAY YEAH"
By Ben Thompson | October 13, 2014
BT: What's good, Paulie? I know you still haven't made a decision about the future of your career, but have you been in the gym at all recently?
PM: Yeah, like in the past month I've been. Not consistently or every day, but just because I don't want to gain too much weight. I want to at least maintain my figure for my TV job (laughing). I don't want to go on TV looking like a slob. Obviously my favorite workouts are still boxing workouts, so yeah, I've done a couple boxing workouts in the gym and maybe some road work, just trying to keep my weight down. I just want to make sure that I don't get out of hand with my weight where I start looking less than stellar for my commenting job, you know.
BT: How does that make you feel when you're back in the gym hitting the heavy bag or shaking loose in the ring? Does that kind of get the fire burning a little bit?
PM: Some days it does. Some days I'm like, man, I'm so out of shape, this sucks (laughing). Some days I'm like, man, I still feel a little bit of a rhythm where I'm like, I can pursue this a little bit. I do want to keep in shape anyway, so regardless of whether I fight or not, I will be in the gym because I'm not going to let myself look the worse for wear, you know what I'm saying. I still gotta keep my looks. I'm still on camera.
BT: Nobody ever wants to end anything on a sour note. Is the urge to continue to fight somewhat enhanced by the fact that you lost that last fight against Porter or are you content with your career?
PM: Um, no, I think I'm at peace either way with my career. I don't know that I'll be in the Hall of Fame for my boxing accomplishments. I do feel that if I did win another world championship, they would kind of have to put me in the Hall of Fame, even if they don't want to, because I'd be a three-time world champion and the guys I fought. So that's kind of the big letdown of the Shawn Porter fight, you know, a chance to be a three-time world champion and probably getting into the Hall of Fame, but hey, I'm at peace with everything and I'll see; if the opportunity presents itself, I can't say I won't think about it. I can't say I would definitely say yeah, but I can't say I won't think about them. But as far as ending my career on a win or loss, nah, it's not so much as important as maybe some other things. I'm at peace at my career, I'm at peace with what I accomplished, and I know who I was and I know who I am, you know. Either way, that wouldn't be the main motivator if I did fight again.
BT: As far as who you'd be willing to fight, I know you briefly entertained the idea of fighting Leonard Bundu. Are you kind of at the point now where you're only motivated to face some of the more well-known names; like maybe a rematch with Adrien Broner perhaps?
PM: I never say never, you know. Until the offer is in front of me, I can't say no and I can't say yeah. I don't know. I mean, obviously, we all, as athletes and former athletes, we live for the big moment. We live to be a part of a big promotion, and as boxers, a big fight. Of course it's always harder to say no to something when it's presented in front of me and it's a chance to be back in the spotlight and to have that. You know, your time to be in the spotlight as a fighter isn't going to be forever anyway, so you kind of hold on to it as long as you can, you know. It would definitely be much more difficult to say no to a situation for a big moment than it would be to say no to just an average fight. So you never say never I guess. But I mean, Adrien is 140 pounds and I can't make 140 pounds even if I wanted to.
BT: What did you think of Adrien's last performance against Emmanuel Taylor?
PM: I thought he fought a really good fight. I thought he looked the best he's looked in a long time. Having said that, he still has that excitement factor where he's still flawed enough to where you can see him getting clipped by a bigger puncher and getting hurt again. But that's what makes fighters exciting. Once fighters are too perfect, people complain that they're not exciting enough. Adrien Broner is really skilled, but he's just flawed enough to make him exciting. I think that Emmanuel Taylor performance was one of his better performances that he's had in years, and he was just flawed enough to be exciting, yet spectacular enough to look really good. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's what I thought about that performance. I felt like people are going to want to see Adrien again off of that performance. When I saw him, I told him, "You didn't even have to do a lot of clowning around to make it work." He didn't do a lot of clowning around in the fight. Adrien, sometimes, lets the clowning around come to the forefront instead of his skills. He's got enough skills where he should be letting people know him for his skills first and the clowning around second, and I felt like in recent times, people were starting to get to know Adrien Broner more for his antics and his clowning around and stuff than for his actual boxing skills. When it comes to that, you're losing sight of what's important, you know. You can have fun in there and do whatever you want, but it's the skill that you gotta always make sure people know you for, and I think Adrien got back to that in the Emmanuel Taylor fight. And actually, Emmanuel Taylor fought a good fight too. I know we're talking about Adrien, but Emmanuel Taylor didn't do himself any injustice. It was one of my favorite fights of the year so far.
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