On December 7th, the battle of Brooklyn will be waged at the Barclays Center, and this time it’s Paul “The Magic Man” Malignaggi’s (32-5 7KOs) and longtime friend Zab “Super” Judah (42-8 29KOs) who will be across the ring. Both fighters, call the Brooklyn home, and Malignaggi said for years fans have come up to him wanting him to fight Judah so the true King of Brooklyn could be decided, he stated, “It made a lot of sense from that perspective and also for us both being from Brooklyn. Until the fight was made I didn’t think it would be more than Brooklyn talk and that’s all.” He continued, “It’s hard to go back to your fans and say, ‘Oh man you’re not the best fighter in your borough.’ I think the motivation is from there. You fight guys from other cities and you rep your neighborhood, you rep your city real well. I get announced as from Brooklyn, N.Y., regardless of where I’ve lived in my career because it’s a sense of pride. Here, the other guy is announced from Brooklyn, N.Y., and it’s a sense of inner-pride within the city. You have to run into the other guy’s fans.”
Paulie Malignaggi is coming of a whirlwind of controversy in his last fight when he lost his WBA World Welterweight title to the current Champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner. Depending on how you score fights. Fans could have scored the fight in favor for the more active Malignaggi or the clean effective punching from Broner.
After the fight with Broner, Malignaggi contemplated retirement as he feels that he has nothing left to prove and at this point it’s about making the best money possible in each fight. Malignaggi stated that although the thoughts of going through another grueling training camp were weighing on him emotionally, once he gets back in the gym that his passion returns, Malignaggi stated, “Sometimes between fights I’ll be thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’m up to train for a fight again.’ But once mentally and physically I decide to fight I kind of erase the negativity. Its full speed ahead, you step on the gas and you go. Don’t get me wrong, in the beginning of camp when you’re trying to get back into shape you’re like, ‘Man, why did I do this?’ But once that competitive juice comes back and you start getting in shape, you start feeling sharp, you start feeling good and you realize why you do this. You realize the things that spur you on, that motivate you that drive you to do this. The adrenaline rush, the excitement as a fight approaches and all of a sudden you’re not thinking about those negative things anymore and you’re thinking about all the positive things and all the fun this brings. Don’t get me wrong, its hard fight fighting at this level. But, at the same time, it’s a situation where I’d rather be here than anywhere else.”
Malignaggi typically takes to twitter and is known to be relentless his insults leading into fights. Since Judah and Malignaggi has shown nothing but respect for each other, Paulie stated that his motivation for the fight is not only to be the King of Brooklyn but it’s the thrill of the competition. He stated “The competition drives us all. That’s the reason we do this and get up in the morning and train hard for each fight. You need different things to drive you. The competition always is the driving force. The competitor in me is driven by winning. Winning means everything to me. Yeah, Zab is someone I respect and looked up to coming up, but winning means everything to me. I’m a competitor in anything I do, especially boxing. It’s not hard to get up for a fight like this. You can still respect your opponent and still get up for a fight.”
