Paulie Malignaggi

Bio

Paulie Malignaggi won world titles at 140lb and 147lb without ever really being able to punch, and that sentence is a compliment rather than an insult.

The Brooklyn man built a career on hand speed, a fast educated jab, and the kind of ring geography that makes bigger, stronger opponents throw at where you used to be. Brittle hands meant he could not rely on power at any stage, so he learned to win rounds instead — and then went to Manchester and Ukraine and Russia and won them there too, which is more than most American champions of his era attempted.

He retired in 2017 with thirty-six wins and eight defeats, most of those losses coming against elite opposition. Since then he has become one of the more listened-to voices in boxing punditry, largely because he refuses to soften a verdict for the sake of an easy life.

In fight week for Ryan Garcia against Conor Benn he delivered the bluntest read of the lot, arguing that even the very best version of Benn would not be competitive with the champion — and that Benn's real world title chance passed him by when he turned down Mario Barrios. Harsh, and coming from a man who spent his whole career as the smaller fighter, difficult to dismiss.