Paulie Malignaggi says Ricky Hatton will pay for looking past him on November 22.
The ‘Magic Man’ takes on Manchester’s finest in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to prove who is the best light-welterweight in the world.
Hatton has already been talking about the possibility of megabucks fights with Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao next year.
But Malignaggi says that sort of talk is premature, and vowed to give the Hitman a shocking wake-up call next month.
He said: “I’m focused on Ricky Hatton, not (Oscar) De La Hoya or (Manny) Pacquiao. It’s going to be a very frustrating night for Ricky Hatton. He’ll be catching a lot. I’ll prove that Paulie Malignaggi is the number one 140-pounder in the world.”
Hatton says we’ll see an improved Hitman on November 22, with Floyd Mayweather Snr in his corner for the first time.
But Malignaggi says a change of trainer won’t be enough to save him from defeat.
“Floyd Mayweather, Sr. is putting himself in a tough situation and putting a lot of pressure on Hatton,” he said.
“You can’t teach dogs new tricks. He can teach him a few things in two months, but Hatton doesn’t have the talent – natural speed and defensive ability.
“Mayweather’s been opening his mouth and when I beat Hatton, everybody is going to say he shouldn’t have gotten rid of his trainer (Billy Graham) and blame Mayweather. When they lose it’s going to cost Mayweather a lot of jobs.”
Malignaggi has had to vacate his IBF world title to take up the challenge of facing Hatton, and isn’t happy about the fact.
“I’m very disappointed to give up my title. I did my best to win it and was very proud to wear it. I’ve never heard of the same boxer being the mandatory twice within the same year. I worked hard to get that title, but I was committed to fighting Hatton.
“Me and Ricky are the top two 140-pounders and we’re fighting to see who is No. 1. We could have asked for an exception requiring the winner to fight Ngoudjo next, but neither of us (Malignaggi and Hatton) would agree, so we let the IBF title go and allowed two guys we’ve already beaten fight for it while we take care of our business.
“We did Ngoudjo and Urango a favor by not asking for the exception and making them wait another six months to fight. I wish them the best of luck. This is the biggest fight of my career, IBF title or no title. I’m going to show the world that Paulie Malignaggi is the No. 1 light welterweight in the world.”
Malignaggi broke a bone in his right hand in his last bout – a points defeat of Lovemore N’dou on the Hatton/Lazcano undercard at Eastlands in May.
But he says the injury is now healed and he’s raring to go.
“It’s fine. I’ve been hitting hard. Everybody’s going to find out how good my hand is, especially Ricky Hatton.”
With more than a month to go to the showdown, Malignaggi is already in Las Vegas, preparing for the biggest night of his professional career.
“I trained in the Poconos for a while. In between the press conferences (Las Vegas and London) I worked at Gleason’s (in Brooklyn). We moved camp last week to Las Vegas for a lot of reasons. I wanted to get used to West Coast time and there are plenty of good fighters in Vegas for sparring. I spar against different styles of fighters to stay sharp. I started sparring in the Poconos and everything has been good.”
