Paulie "The Magician" or "Magic Man" Malignaggi has a pretty face as well as skills. His punches pack about as much voltage as an alcopop but all that rapid-fire jabbing manipulates his opponents into positions where he can kill them on points.
Paulie has strong legs that maneuver him away from his opponents so that he rarely gets hit, protecting his pretty boy face. That is, until the title fight against Miguel Cotto who is in the possession of fists that are probably registered as lethal weapons in some states. Cotto fractured the Magic Man's orbital and left spectators wondering in shock and horror if Malignaggi would be able to keep his eye.
This incident did nothing to stop the Magic Man's mouth.
"If Manny Pacquiao wants to get that ass whooping, once I'm done with Ricky, I will gladly tear that a** up all over the place," Malignaggi said. "Tell Manny to stop disrespecting the Magic Man, stop saying you want to fight Ricky because Ricky is not getting by the Magic Man. If he wants to fight a junior-welterweight, once I beat Ricky's a** I will gladly tear his ass up all over the place." If nothing else can be said it is clear that Malignaggi has a fixation with "tearing up a**".
I am deviously planning ways to get to Las Vegas for the super-fight at the MGM on November 22nd where Paulie Malignaggi will defend the IBF junior welterweight title against Ricky "Hitman" Hatton.
Hatton fights are never boring. Hatton's crushing KO loss to Floyd Mayweather is not the end. Maybe Ricky needs to spend less time on the stage doing stand-up at benefit dinners and work himself in the ring until he has a major epiphany and starts doing things that no one has done before. Hatton has it in him.
I'm not alone. Emanuel Steward, former trainer of Lennox Lewis and Thomas Hearns, defended Hatton in the Mayweather fight: "I've seen that happen to a boxer before. They get too excited and over-anxious and that moves on down the line to their performance. Ricky Hatton is a very brave fighter who went in there and got careless. Why did he get careless? I think he was too wired up. He wanted to fight for the crowd and a crowd can work against you just as they can work for you. This crowd worked against him. A boxer has to have controlled aggression and I didn't see enough of that from Hatton's corner. I saw naked, crude aggression."
In an interview with boxingtalk.com Malignaggi had more lip:
"I wouldn't be surprised if I knocked Ricky Hatton out. It's something that people are going to read and think I'm ridiculous, but if you look beyond what you see with naked eye, every time he gets hit clean he's hurt. He cannot take a punch. To the head, to the body, I've been saying this for years.
He cannot take a punch and that's why he fights the way he does. He's always looking to hold because he's trying to prevent his opponents from extending their punches so they can get maximum power on them."
Maybe Malignaggi has true heart and maybe his ego is bruised by the unimpressive UK fight against Lovermore N'Dou. In the eighth round of the fight against N'Dou the Magic Man broke his hand in the sixth and then had to make his hair extensions do a disappearing act which failed to impress the British public.
Malignaggi explained: "I have a broken middle metacarpal, basically the bone behind the right knuckle is broken. I have a cast on at the moment, and I have to go through the healing process but November is plenty of time away and I'll be ready for the fight with Hatton."
The Hitman appears to be keeping quiet, laying in wait, stockpiling ammunition for the big MGM fight in Las Vegas. Hatton is not giving anything away. He is keeping the Magician in his sights while Malignaggi tires himself out with a smoke and mirrors display coupled with excessive bursts of hot air. Be there in Las Vegas when the Hitman puts Malignaggi's mouth where it belongs.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Axel_Johansson
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