This week’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former IBF junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi who is scheduled to challenge reigning WBA champion Amir Khan 
on May 15. Here are some excerpts from that interview:On preparations for his May 15 fight against Amir Khan:
“Everything is good. I’m excited, I’ve been working very hard, I feel very prepared, and I can’t wait until next Saturday, I really can’t.”
Regarding Freddie Roach’s claim that Khan will knock Malignaggi out inside of three rounds:
“Amir Khan is going to get knocked out next Saturday night—I promise. You have my word on that. Amir Khan is going to get stopped next Saturday night. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dislike for an opponent more than I have for this guy. There’s always trash-talking and there’s always stuff that gets said back and forth with camps. It’s just a part of boxing, but this guy, the arrogance this kid has coming into this fight is a little bit too much now. I think he’s been misinformed. I think he thinks he’s been fighting at a world class level. I think he’s been reading too much of his press. He has no idea what it is to step up to this level and next Saturday night he’ll find out..”
On what he sees in Amir Khan as a boxer:
“I don’t know. I guess he’s a decent boxer, but again, he’s been misinformed. He thinks he’s a world class fighter. He’s decent, you know. He does things okay. He’s not the strongest guy. He thinks he’s fast; he’s really not that fast. He just tries too hard. He tries so hard to be fast that gives up on a lot of other things trying to be fast. If you’re fast, you should just come out fluid—you shouldn’t have to get so stiff to throw fast punches and if you notice that’s what Amir Khan does. There’s just a lot of things. You’ll find out next Saturday night just how limited he is after what I do to him.”
Regarding Khan’s first round knockout loss against Breidis Prescott:
“It’s funny you mention the Breidis Prescott loss because you can’t really name a name fighter on Amir’s resume. He hasn’t fought one name fighter but he’s got a knockout loss. This guy is totally misinformed. I don’t know who he thinks he is, I don’t know how they treat him in England, but they got him thinking he’s somebody he’s not and man, he needs a real reality check and next Saturday night I can’t wait to give it to him. I really can’t wait to give it to him.”
On his claim that he will stop Khan inside the distance:
“I’m not going to come in here telling you I have a lot of punching power. I’m coming in here telling you I’m knocking out Amir Khan. I’m not coming in here saying I punch like Mike Tyson, I punch like Prince Hamed used to punch in the day, I’m not saying any of that. What I’m saying is Amir Khan better bring his pillow next Saturday night because we’re going to find a soft spot on the canvas for him and then we’ll put him right to sleep.”
On whether he thinks he will partake in any “clowning around” with Khan or whether he is focused on sticking with a game plan:
“Yeah, that’s a good question. That’s a very good question, it’s funny you bring that up. Yeah, sometimes I do get bored just because the pace of the action is always going the same way. In the Diaz fights sometimes that was the case. I didn’t have a personal beef with Juan Diaz. I’m not going to say I didn’t try to win because obviously I was trying to win both fights. I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t trying to win, but you get kind of sidetracked and distracted. I don’t see a way I can get sidetracked or distracted fighting Amir Khan just because I dislike him to the point where I want to stop him so I don’t see myself getting sidetracked at all. Like if I’m beating him up, instead of getting bored like the second Diaz fight I was beating him up so I was getting bored so it was the same thing every round, if I got bored I started showboating. If I’m beating up Amir Khan like that, my mind is going to be on taking him out so I’m not going to be sidetracked with trying to showboat or trying to have a good time. The goal is to take out Amir Khan. The goal is to make him understand that this is a world class level here and buddy, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. I’m not saying, oh, we’re going to fight a careless fight. The game plan is always the game plan for Pauli Malignaggi, but we’re going to up this tempo up and we’re going to knock his ass out next week.”
His thoughts on Amir Khan’s punching power:
“Who did Amir Khan knock out that we should be worried about oh, this guy’s a strong guy he’s got punching power. Who has he knocked out? I don’t worry about that. I feel like that if I just train and get in shape, work on my game plan, and execute that and then from there we’ll take it. I don’t have to worry about Amir Khan as this monster puncher and all of this, because I’ve faced bigger punchers than him.”
On Floyd Mayweather Junior’s dominant victory against Sugar Shane Mosley:
“I thought it was a real masterful performance by Floyd Mayweather. Everybody knows I’m really big on Mayweather but he even surprised me as to the way he handled Mosley and not just the way he handled Mosley, but he was rocked pretty badly in round two. To make an adjustment that fast, to really come back from being hurt like that—how many people give the man enough credit? People always say, oh he fights like that because he’s scared. He doesn’t want to get hit. We saw Mayweather not only get hit but get hurt, and his instant reaction was to take the fight to Mosley. His instant reaction was to go get it together and go win this fight. I think people need to stop questioning a guy who doesn’t get hit. See, if a guy doesn’t go to war that doesn’t mean he’s scared to go to war. If he has to, he will. Why would a guy who has the ability to not go to war go to war? Sugar Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao, if they had fought Saturday night they would have went at it because Pacquiao doesn’t have the ability to control somebody. Pacquiao just has to walk right through them. Mayweather had the ability to control somebody. He had Sugar Shane Mosley second guessing himself on getting punches off and when have you ever seen Sugar Shane Mosley doing that. Sugar Shane Mosley lets go of punches all over the place, but Floyd varied his attack to the point where it was such a variation, such a good mix, and his defense and offense were so well balanced that it was really a natural performance.”
His views on a potential match-up between Mayweather and Pacquiao:
“You do that test on the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and you make Manny Pacquiao take that test, Mayweather not only beats him, Mayweather stops him because you will not see the same Manny Pacquiao you’ve seen the last couple of years. He would be a totally different guy, and Mayweather is a legitimate welterweight with welterweight strength. I mean you seen him pushing Shane Mosley around? I didn’t even realize Mayweather had that kind of strength on the inside. He is a legitimate welterweight who would walk through Manny Pacquiao if they take those tests, but not having the tests, you do a 180 because now you have a Manny Pacquiao who is just an amazing physical specimen who will throw 100 punches a round at a 100 miles per hour and not even breathe heavy so something’s up, obviously.”
On his criticisms aimed towards Manny Pacquiao:His final round prediction for his upcoming fight against Amir Khan in which he predicted a knockout:
“No, I don’t have a round. I’m not Muahammad Ali. I’m just looking to stop Amir Khan next Saturday.”
Source: eastsideboxing.com
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