Let’s go back to the beginning… The beginning of the end.
We first have to preface what’s about to be spilled all over this article with one very important truth: Paulie Malignaggi has actually never met Manny Pacquiao before in his life. Yet, for all the video content starring Paulie on YouTube where he bashes Pacquiao (there are too many to count), you’d think Manny broke into dude’s home and copped all of his hair color for the hell of it.
Listen Paulie Malignaggi almost hates Manny Pacquiao. I say “almost”, because if he doesn’t, he makes it seem as if he’s pretty damn close.
To get to the origins of Paulie’s considerable problems with Pac, we gotta go back a few years to uncover clues. We would call this “beef”, but to have that, you have to have two sides equally upset with the other. Mention Paulie around Pac, and Manny will start smiling while singing love songs badly out of tune to the top of his lungs. Mention Pac around Paulie, anywhere, and his eyes will take on the look yours might if you saw a UFO.
His heart starts racing and his voice rises. He gets all hot and bothered in a way that’s, frankly, a little disturbing. Take a look at Paulie and a friend on the eve of Pac/Bradley II, its amazing to listen to him trash Pacquiao (he’s more or less hoping Tim Bradley, who should beat Jesse Vargas, would win). The passion in his “Oh they got Vada testing Pacquiao? Bradley all day!” is hilarious.
Recently, Malignaggi murked Pac on video w/ Zo Crooks and Real Combat Media, where he basically accuses Pacquiao of lying about a shoulder injury despite a very real surgical procedure performed by world renowned surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache. Paulie even went beyond that, stating in subsequent interviews that Pacquiao thinks ‘he’s God’ and would ‘get into a fight with Jesus if met him’. Regarding a potential fight with Pacquiao, Paulie dropped that he’s ‘not against that fight at all’ and that ‘he’s never lost to a southpaw in his life’.
Yeah. Let’s give all of that a moment of silence.
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Ok. With respect to the connection of Toradol and Pacquiao somehow seeking some sort of advantage, USADA (the Olympic testing agency TMT demanded to use) actually approved of that shot. It is not banned in pre or post-fight testing protocols. For clarity, the guy he fought nearly two months ago uses a banned substance (one banned in every other state except Nevada) Xylocaine for his hands. Just a thought. Anyway…
Let press rewind<<<<<<<<<<
In the fall of 2008, a battle for super lightweight supremacy took place between Paulie Malignaggi and Ricky Hatton. It was during the actual negotiation for that fight, that a superfight between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar de la hoya was also being negotiated. This, owed to De la hoya’s inability to secure a rematch with a “retired” Floyd Mayweather.
Shortly after the blockbuster deal to fight De la hoya was reached, representatives of Pacquiao had already began preliminary discussions with Hatton’s camp about a spring 2009 bout between the two. It was news leaked by none other than Floyd Mayweather Sr., Hatton’s new trainer, and this enraged Malignaggi, who’d worked hard to get attention for the Hatton fight.
He did, afterall, famously get his haircut in between rounds of a narrow points win over Lovemore N’Dou prior to the Hatton fight. Malignaggi is a “prizefighter” in every sense of the word and he flat-out envied Pacquiao’s meteoric ascent. There’s really no other way to phrase it.
According to multiple accounts, including those in actual court documents that would later be used to decide in Pacquiao’s favor during a defamation suit against “Money”, Floyd Sr. (who had replaced the fired Billy Graham) had began indicating that Pacquiao was being given PED’s by Alex Ariza (yep, the same Ariza who just helped Floyd for May 2) and was a ‘superhuman’ fighter. This was something Malignaggi himself began referencing – with no evidence – and cited Pacquiao’s ability to destroy David Diaz at 135lbs for a WBC lightweight belt that spring 2008, then immediately face De la hoya at 147 in December 2008.
“How is he just gonna blowout Diaz, weigh 147 against Diaz on fight night, and you just fought Marquez at 130?” reasoned Malignaggi in Nov 2008. “He doesn’t make any f*cking sense! And now, he’s overlooking me and De la hoya to get to Hatton. Something aint right and But I’m gonna upset the f*cking apple cart.”
Pacquiao, who actually admitted negotiating with Hatton prior (which angered De la hoya), went on to say ‘Hatton should have no problem with him [Paulie], we know about him around here (Wild Card Gym) and he doesn’t hit hard at all.” But he wasn’t done. At the very end of that statement, Pacquiao released two words which resonate inside the belly of Paulie to this day: “He’s soft.”
‘MP’: MANNY/PAULIE
Both Paulie and his then trainer Buddy McGirt, believed that Hatton was ripe for the taking, and that Malignaggi would win easily. But it was McGirt who threw in every white towel from the corner to stop a one-sided fight in the 11th round. Hatton didn’t really need Mayweather Sr. in the corner to use blunt force aggression to butcher Malignaggi all night.
Lets press fast-forward>>>>
Paulie, prior to facing Shawn Porter last year, emphatically indicated that all Porter was [was] ‘Pacquiao’s garbage sparring partner that gives him a hard time in camp’ and that he’ll ‘expose him for the amateur that he is’. So the fact that Porter damn near killed and gave him the beating of his life is a possible clue as to why he recently picked Broner to defeat Porter so easily. Paulie, an excellent commentator and one of the best in all of boxing, allows an emotional jealousy or resentment to govern his logic at times. This in turn makes it easy to question his credibility or even remove him from it entirely.
Those who follow the sport closely recall Paulie’s wild accusations of boxing being a rigged and corrupt sport following a narrow loss to Juan Diaz (which then got Diaz a shot at Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez). We really remember Paulie having a complete meltdown during his fight with Adrien Broner in 2013. “Sidepieces” aside, Malignaggi famously accused Broner of being an “Al Haymon creation” and that Haymon represents “everything that is wrong with boxing”. After clearly (but not badly) losing to Broner, Paulie then told the 1.3 million viewers watching that night in a post fight interview in the ring that one of the judges was “in Al Haymon’s pocket”.
In a brilliant career move, he of course, signed with Al Haymon a few days later. Everyone knows there’s hypocrisy in being a capitalist, but you can’t hold a journalistic mic of boxing integrity while being an obvious opportunist, especially one who appears in front of a camera at the same time. C’mon Paulie.
He’s allowed this confusion to completely separate him from any type of logical reality concerning a fight between himself and Pacquiao. How do we know this? Look how he views himself before losses to Hatton, Diaz, Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Adrien Broner, Shawn Porter and soon to be Danny Garcia (“Swift” is going to tear his ass up). He can’t win any big fights, but you would swear that he’s the Sultan of Saudi Arabia. With that in mind, listen to him in a fierce exchange with Keith Thurman and then size up his rhetoric with Pacquiao.
Paulie’s allure with grandeur of the big stage he covets is really admirable, but his vitriol of Pacquiao isn’t. Anytime someone is trying to bring you down they’re already below you- which is clear as it relates to the saga of ‘MP (ie. Manny/Paulie). ‘He’d deny any of this in a very funny and rather intelligent way, but there’s a reason why he named his urban line “Future Legend”. Its very telling in many ways, for it represents Malignaggi is still a wannabe (which he shouldn’t feel), and resents all that Pacquiao became and still wants to be.
When told of Malignaggi’s many remarks, the Filipino icon still doesn’t take him seriously according to Freddie Roach. “Manny just thinks Paulie is bitter over his career achievements and not happy with his own,” dropped da Fredster. “I really got tired of him talking sh*t and decided to kick his ass out of the Wild Card.” In a separate interview with Tha Boxing Voice, Roach almost loses his mind reacting to an “MP” fight.
“Manny would kill him,” Roach sprayed, while laughing at the question of an MP fight. “Oh Jesus gimme a break. Its like f*ckin taking candy from a baby.”
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He would go absolutely rogue carpenter on Paulie while hammering and nailing him so many times. Malignaggi will never be an A side fighter or even an A grade fighter. He’s an overachieving boxer with an extraordinary desire for glory who’s had an amazing career. More of a commentator than a fighter today, chances are Danny Garcia will stop Paulie in a pretty decent fight.
But if he somehow gets by Garcia (at Barclay’s in Brooklyn, a place where generally performs well), this is a fight Pacquiao and Bob Arum should run to like it was a year’s supply of Toradol in early 2016. If Porter was able to leave Paulie outlined in chalk and surrounded by police tape, Pacquiao would bury and eulogize him.
‘MP’ would be drug tested and Paulie approved, which would do nothing but get him abused and in need of drugs as a result of the real MP. If he’s smart (and Paulie is), he’d realize he never has to say “I coulda been a contender”. Maybe on August 2nd, the day after Danny Garcia kicks his ass, he’ll become content that he was an improbable world champion and remains one at ringside with a microphone in front of him.
