By Steve Kim, SecondsOut.com
December 19th, 1997 will forever be etched in the mind of Paulie Malignaggi. On that night at the famed Madison Square Garden, a highly-touted fighter from Great Britain took on the local favorite from New York. That fight was the memorable shootout between “Prince” Naseem Hamed and Kevin Kelley, which Hamed won in four pulsating rounds.
"I remember it well," Malignaggi told Maxboxing on Sunday night, "because it was the first live fight I ever attended. So I definitely remember it very well. And I knew Kevin Kelley from Gleason’s Gym; I had just started boxing; I actually hadn’t had an amateur fight yet. I had just joined the boxing gym about six months earlier and had started learning how to box. That was the first live fight I ever attended. Live pro fight, anyways. I have fond memories of that night. Kevin didn’t win, but it was an incredible atmosphere; it was incredibly entertaining as well."
This weekend, inside the small room of MSG at the WaMu Theater, Malignaggi- who hails from Brooklyn- faces Amir Khan, who is making his Stateside debut.
"I see some similarities here; mainly, Khan is British and I’m from New York. Also he’s has a Middle Eastern similarity as well," pointed out Malignaggi. Like Hamed, Khan is of Middle Eastern descent, Hamed being Pakistani and Khan being Yemeni."Kevin was a hot-shot New Yorker, I’m a hot-shot New Yorker. I think the only difference is that Hamed was more flashy than Khan. Khan is a trash-talker, too, but not to the same level as Hamed. Khan is not as clever."
Malignaggi’s promoter, Lou DiBella, played an integral role in making Hamed-Kelley a reality since he was in charge of HBO’s boxing division back then. He believes that this fight is a valid comparison. "With a couple of exceptions, Hamed was undefeated and he could dance and sing,” said DiBella. “Hamed was an entertainer in and outside the ring. This kid’s more of a straight fighter and the other thing is, at the point in which Hamed came to conquer America, he had never been knocked out in a round by a journeyman."
DiBella is referring to Khan’s lone blemish, a first round TKO at the hands of Breidis Prescott, who isn’t exactly Aaron Pryor. Khan has what could be described as a “china chin.” Problem is, Malignaggi has “china fists.” His brittle hands have contributed to him having just five knockouts to his credit in 30 professional bouts. It’s one of the major reasons why Golden Boy Promotions (which just recently inked Khan) tabbed Malignaggi.
So what wins out, the not-so-irresistible force or the easily-moved object?
When asked if he would attempt to check Khan’s chin early on, Malignaggi answered, "Strategically, you just come in and do what you do best; obviously, everybody knows what type of fighter I am. You pretty much know what to expect from that end. I’m sure Khan will do the same thing. Yeah, I’m not a big puncher; some of it, again, I don’t have to make excuses. I’ve had hand injuries. I’ve had a trainer that was clueless for two years. That definitely didn’t help my cause as well. My hands are fine now. Last year was the first full year, top to bottom, I had with healthy hands. So I feel like I’m getting stronger. I feel like I’m able to juice up his power a little bit. But let’s face it; even guys like Willie Limond, a junior lightweight/lightweight, he put Khan down and almost out. So if you blow on Khan’s chin, you might hurt him."
Malignaggi makes the point that all punches hurt to a certain degree and all boxers have varying degrees of resistance to them.
"So I don’t come in getting away from the game plan, but let’s now go above and beyond here; a grown man hits Amir Khan, he’s going at any point," he continued. "I mean, a grown man hits anybody in the chin, he can go at any point. I understand some of us hit harder than others, but punches never tickle. And if my punches tickled, I never would’ve won a world title in my career."
The promotion is now in its final stages with the final press conference having taken place on Wednesday afternoon in the Big Apple. But as of late last week, it wasn’t clear if Khan was going to be given clearance to even re-enter the country. He spent the last weeks of his camp in Canada after touching down initially at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California, under the watchful eye of Freddie Roach.
The whole situation left Malignaggi antsy.
"Yeah, man, I went through a whole training camp just to have this thing taken out at the last second; I was pretty frustrated. I’m pretty relieved. I’m more relieved than anybody," said Malignaggi, who, during this stretch, blew up DiBella’s cell phone. "Because I was like, ’Yo, what’s going on?’ Everybody was like holding information back. ’Oh, he’s going to be here; he’s going to be here.’ A week later, he still wasn’t here. So I’m like, ’Yo, something’s up right now. Somebody’s not telling me something.’ So I started really thinking. I was just really hoping people weren’t lying to me. I started getting pissed off. But everything’s alright now."
Fighters get paid to fight. They don’t get a dime for their countless hours of preparation if the bouts don’t come off. It’s the most helpless feeling in the world for a professional prizefighter.
"That’s what I was thinking, because if the fight gets canceled halfway through camp, it’s like, alright. But for a fight to get canceled right at the end of it- and that’s never happened to me, thankfully- just the thought of it, you put in all that work, stay disciplined for all that time and just have your mind set on the game plan, being disciplined, doing what you have to do every single day, day in and day out, and then it’s taken away? Aww, man, just the thought of it was frustrating me," lamented Malignaggi.
Perhaps the only one more relieved that Khan eventually received his work visa was DiBella.
"Let me tell you something; it was a wonderful blessing that he was able to get in because Paulie only had 24 hours of anxiety and it would’ve just kept going. I’m happy for Paulie’s benefit, but also for the benefit of my ears that Khan got in," said the promoter, laughing.
Once again, Malignaggi finds himself the B-side of a big promotion. But this time under much different circumstances.
"He’s the B-side, in terms of what he’s getting paid by the television network, and he’s the B-side, in terms of the odds-makers, but he’s clearly in the eyes of the United States of America and for the purposes of this promotion, he’s clearly not the B-side," DiBella pointed out. "And that’s what I argued all along and I still stand by that. That’s why we’re in New York, where, yes, there will be some Brits there; there will be a Khan contingent, but you’re going to hear chants for Paulie in that room.
"It’s not going to be Amir Khan’s room."
P-WILL
Had a chance to talk to someone in Paul Williams’ inner circle and I was told that they have made it clear that Williams will settle in at 154 pounds and they have basically given up the pipe dream of facing the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather for now. They can scream at the top of their lungs all day long; they are never getting those fights. It’s like this, I see that Halle Berry is back out on the market, but let’s be real, I’m not taking her out anytime soon.
Also, they have realized that for them, the west coast isn’t the best coast. They believe that it would be much more ideal for Williams to be showcased consistently in markets like D.C., Atlantic City or even Atlanta.
Well, that’s a start. Now, if they can get only get him more active than he’s been recently.
BUTE
I got a call from a representative of InterBox, which handles the career of IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. I was informed that Bute will return to the ring in his home country of Romania on July 24th against a still-to-be-determined foe. It doesn’t seem like HBO will be televising this one as they are already committed to a date featuring Yuriorkis Gamboa in Las Vegas.
The IBF just recently installed Jesse Brinkley as Bute’s mandatory, an opponent that might not have been accepted by HBO. So perhaps this works out perfectly for everybody involved. Bute stays active, draws big back home and HBO doesn’t have to foot the bill.
30 FOR 30
On Tuesday night I saw “Straight Outta L.A.” on ESPN’s ongoing “30 for 30” series, directed by Ice Cube, which looked at the relationship between the Raiders and the city of Los Angeles and the rise of “gangsta” rap and, specifically, his former outfit N.W.A.
I thought it was OK, but to me (and I say this as someone who was a die-hard Rams fan, till they jumped ship after the 1994 season), it was like a less authentic version of “The U,” which traced the rise of the Miami Hurricanes in the 1980s and its place in the South Florida community. Here’s the thing, the real renegade Raiders, to me, will always be associated with Oakland, where they won the majority of their championships and had their most memorable moments like “The Holy Roller” and “The Ghost to the Post.”
Yeah, gang members and N.W.A. wore Raiders paraphernalia; well, you’d expect that since they do have a great looking logo (admittedly), but more importantly, they had those menacing colors, the famed silver-and-black. Crips and Bloods weren’t going to wear the purple-and-gold of the Lakers (who truly have been L.A.’s favorite franchise for over three decades), but I do remember many individuals of the same element sporting Los Angeles Kings gear, who in the late 80s, ditched their old uniforms for the same color scheme of the Raiders.
I’m guessing that they weren’t fans of Wayne Gretsky, Bernie Nicholls and Luc Robitaille.
The Raiders had a certain fan base, no doubt. But here’s the truth, they rarely sold-out (forcing a number of games to be blacked out, locally), they were a mediocre-to-bad franchise starting from 1986 and really, neither they, nor the NFL, are especially missed in Los Angeles. Life has gone on just fine without them. In fact, I always thought our city was 25-percent safer with the Raiders having moved back to Oakland (I mean, the first episodes of “Gangland” on the History Channel could’ve focused in on the Raider home games at the Coliseum).
All I can say now is, good riddance to the “Rai-duhs” (But I do miss the Raiderettes).
RAJON RONDO FLURRIES
There have been early conversations between the camps of middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and Shane Mosley. But again, these are just preliminary talks; nothing more. Both sides are just sifting through various options...A fight between Robert Guerrero and Joel Casamayor is being discussed for the pay-per-view undercard on July 31st, when Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz get it on again in Las Vegas...Told that Sergio Mora, who was to have faced Brit Mathew Macklin, has balked at that fight...Alfonso Gomez will be featured on the July 3rd edition of “Top Rank Live” on Fox Sports Net/Espanol...Bob Arum said on a conference call with reporters that the one thing that will suffer in Manny Pacquiao’s life, with his recent election victory, is his love of billiards. With his new responsibilities, he won’t have time to play as he once did. It’s the end of Manny-sota Fats, I guess...Just a gut feeling, but I don’t think the proposed fight between Gamboa and Celestino Caballero (which was slated for the HBO broadcast on July 24th) will take place. The problem? Very simple, not enough money to satisfy both sides. Plus, I think Gamboa wants a safer option...Told that Nonito Donaire is being strongly considered to open up the July 10th Showtime telecast before “JuanMa” Lopez faces Bernabe Concepcion in Puerto Rico...Seriously, did anyone really think that Rajon Rondo would ever be this good while at Kentucky? He may be a top ten player in the NBA right now...This week’s edition of “The Main Event” features Larry Merchant of HBO Sports and Lem Satterfield of Fanhouse.com...Any questions or comments can be sent to me at k9kim@yahoo.com and you can follow me at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. You can also become a Facebook fan of Maxboxing at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing
Source: secondsout.com
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