Paul Malignaggi discusses Pacquiao-Horn: “I can see why they’re doing it”

PAUL Malignaggi has garnered respect within the boxing industry for his achievements inside the ring and for his knowledge outside of it.

So it comes as no surprise that the former two-division titleholder has found a familiar home in the commentary booth, excelling in multiple roles as a colour analyst for Showtime Sports in the US and Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

Given his wealth of accomplishments and reputation for calling things as he sees it, people often listen when Malingaggi has something to say.

The Brooklyn native was recently quizzed about his opinion on the highly publicised decision by Top Rank to pit legendary eight-division titleholder and future Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao against undefeated Australian starlet Jeff Horn.

To to the surprise of many, Malignaggi is in favour of the fight.

“You know what, that’s interesting,” said Malignaggi in an interview with ES News. “I wasn’t one of the people that was criticising Floyd Mayweather for fighting Andre Berto (in his last fight) and I really didn’t think to criticise Pacquiao for taking on Jeff Horn.”

“I think some of these fights are pretty cool – that you get to go other countries – and perform on this stage.”

Unlike most pundits that have served their opinion on the looming WBO welterweight title fight, Malignaggi is well schooled on the ability of the Brisbane-based Horn, with the 36-year-old noting that he was in negotiations to face Horn last year.

“Honestly, I’ve seen some footage of Jeff Horn because there were some talks, even though they never got anywhere far,” he added. “But there were some talks with my name and his name falling around together, so I’ve gotten a look at the past at Jeff Horn.”

“He’s not a bad fighter. Listen, is he at the elite level of Manny Pacquiao? Probably not. But he’s not a bad fighter, he’s a pretty good fighter actually.”

“I think right now, he’s probably the best fighter they have in Australia coming up at the moment.”

With Manny Pacquiao being in the final chapter of his storied career, Malignaggi believes a world tour of sorts makes sense given the history of previous iconic names, who opted to take a similar route.

“I think Ali did his thing, travelled the world and had fights against Karl Mildenberger and Henry Cooper,” he concluded. “Sugar Ray Robinson did the same thing back in the day, I’m not really going to knock it. You can’t keep recycling the same names, you’ve got to give guys chances too.”

“Boxing is a world sport and that kid Horn is a pretty good fighter. I’m not really going to knock the matchup cause I wasn’t really against Mayweather fighting Berto either. You just can’t invent people to fight.”

“The opportunity to fight in Australia in a huge stadium, that’s pretty cool. I feel like there’s something cool about that too, you know. Plus, it’s not really that far from the Philippines to Australia for Pacquiao, it’s not as far as it is to come to the US.”

“I’ve been hard on Pacquiao about things that I feel justified to be hard on him about. And I feel like the Jeff Horn fight, it could be criticised, but I also feel like there’s a fun element to it and I can see why they’re doing it.”

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