Paulie Malignaggi is all for being Jake Paul’s next opponent.
Jake Paul is currently 5-0 in his professional boxing career. He has been taking it nice and easy thus far with his opponent selection, only fighting a fellow YouTuber, a retired NBA player, and a pair of MMA fighters with zero pro boxing experience.
Many fans and sports pundits have called on Paul to begin testing himself against professional boxers. However, as Paul himself has pointed out, he did attempt to do that against Tommy Fury last December fell apart through no fault of his own. Furthermore, recent interest in fights against Julio César Chávez Jr. and even Anderson Silva, who holds a victory over Chávez, have also demonstrated an openness from Paul to make that leap upwards in competition.
Now, a new name has entered the Jake Paul sweepstakes, and it is someone who the MMA community is very familiar with: former WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi.
Of course, while Paul usually jousts with MMA fighters in trash talk on social media, Malignaggi’s internet headbutting is known more for being with MMA fans.
This began after Malignaggi went back and forth with fans over leaked sparring footage between him and McGregor in 2017, with Malignaggi disputing whether or not he was dropped and continuing to brand McGregor fans as “groupies.”
Malignaggi once even took a moment to thank MMA fans for their “stupidity” in thinking that his bare-knuckle boxing match with Artem Lobov would be competitive so that he could profit off of the lopsided contest. Lobov would go on to win that fight via decision.
Since the loss to Lobov, Malignaggi has not competed in any other professional combat sports competition. But as he thought aloud about what attributes and characteristics would be required of Paul’s next opponent, he ultimately landed on himself as the most logical conclusion.
“If he’s gonna fight a real boxer, I think it’s gonna be an older guy, obviously, as they all have been a little older,” Malignaggi began on his YouTube channel. “Despite the non-boxers he fought, they’ve all been a little bit older. But he needs to fight a guy with some notoriety. It can’t just be an older guy who nobody’s ever heard of, right? So he’s always fought smaller guys, so the boxer would definitely have to be smaller if the other guys that he’s fought have been smaller, right?
“So a little bit older, a little bit smaller…you don’t want him to be too big of a puncher. Because let’s face it. Paul is the star here. You wanna make sure you groom the star the right way in fights where he’s at risk but he’s gonna be able to win the fight.
“So we’ve got a little bit older, a little bit smaller, gonna hit him so maybe not the biggest puncher, uhh…Paulie Malignaggi,” Malignaggi concluded with a dramatic pause while briefly staring into the camera.
Malignaggi is 41 years old. His most recent professional boxing match was in a 2017 KO loss to Sam Eggington. On the other side, Jake Paul is only 25, and he was on the giving end of a KO in his most recent bout, which took place last December against Tyron Woodley.
Last year, Malignaggi was critical of Ben Askren for his showing against Paul, stating that Askren fought with a lack of self-worth. Should he be selected as Paul’s next opponent, perhaps “The Magic Man” can show Askren and Paul’s other three victims how it’s done.
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