The one sided beating he received at the hands of Amir Khan on Saturday night is bound to have forced Paulie Malignaggi to ask some serious questions about himself as a fighter.
His ever active twitter account has fallen silent and most of those picking him to upset Khan and claim his WBA belt are nowhere to be found.
After the stoppage Khan and Malignaggi, who had a very public war of words across several mediums before the fight, appeared to have settled their differences.
Malignaggi had previously insinuated that he believed that Amir Khan might be taking some kind of performance enhancing drugs due to his association with the Wild Card gym owned by Freddie Roach, and more specifically his pound for pound pupil Manny Pacquiao.
“They have the same trainer, and you never know. But I haven?t seen enough of him to make a judgment. He?s been fighting over there in England and I haven?t seen a whole lot of him to be able to compare what he used to look like.?
?With Pacquiao, I have my reasons why I think he?s on something”- Paulie Malignaggi
Whatever he thinks about Manny Pacquiao though, Khan beat him easily and without any of the obvious benefits that performance enhancing drugs would bring. His endurance was never tested let alone palpably better, his muscle mass and definition looked the same as usual and his level of aggression was the same as usual, despite the easy target. There are some drugs of course which are very difficult to discern, but equally these aren’t the kind of drugs Malignaggi previously thought that wild Card fighters might have been taking.
Damon James, Pittsburgh: “Doesn’t this prove that all Malignaggi’s ideas about the Wild Card gym were all bulls***?”
It would seem so, although Malignaggi has yet to give any interviews since his loss and might well feel the same way as he did before. Obviously Khan’s win only dispels the idea that the Wild Card is not a gym where all the fighters use steroids in collusion with the trainers.
A lot of the reason why people think Pacquiao might be on steroids is usually because of his success. Having risen through the ranks and walked through bigger and stronger opponents like they were nothing is obviously not an easy thing to do. This must be especially hard to swallow for someone who long ago damaged his hands to the point that he now has very little power.
However, rising through the weight classes and continuing to be successful isn’t something that has never been done before. Pacquiao’s nemesis Floyd Mayweather has made a similar climb, albeit with a different style, and still has decent power himself.
John Daniels, Pittsburgh: “Do you think Malignaggi will retire after the beating he took?”
While I think any of the current champions would beat him, he is still probably top ten and has only ever lost to excellent fighters. Eventually some of the better fighters in the division at the moment will probably move up to full welterweight looking for bigger money fights, Khan being one of them. When that happens Paulie might be able to recapture a title if he is still around.
