by Geoffrey Ciani – This week’s forty-seventh edition of On the Ropes featured three live exclusive interviews: Paulie Malignaggi, Sugar Ray Phillips, and young prospect Shawn Porter. Highlighting this episode was the very interesting interview with former IBF junior welterweight champion, Paulie Malignaggi. Paulie had some very interesting things to say. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
On the upcoming mega bout between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto:
“I see Cotto actually stopping Pacquiao. I believe everybody is on the Pacquiao bandwagon right now, but it a lot of it has to do with the Ricky Hatton knockout, and again, I will go back and say it—Ricky Hatton was not as good people made him out to be..”
More on Cotto-Pacquiao:
“At the end of the day I don’t believe Manny Pacquiao is the best fighter Miguel Cotto has ever fought in his career, but I believe Miguel Cotto will be the best fighter Manny Pacquiao’s fought in his career—at least with Miguel Cotto in his prime, the way he is now.”
On the decision in his last fight with Juan Diaz:
“I thought the decision stunk. I had a feeling that was going to happen.”
On Gale Von Haye’s 118-110 scorecard in the Diaz fight:
“In the end he might have done me a favor because the score was so ridiculous that the public demand for the rematch resulted—the cry for the public rematch—really became louder from the public mainly because of that stupid scorecard.”
On his early experiences at Gleason’s Gym:
“I was able really able to hone my skills and learn a lot, not just from the trainers, but obviously from the sparring I got in there. It really was a combination to the building block to building my career into what it is now.”
On his loss to Ricky Hatton:
“It was a very dull performance on my end.”
On his working relationship with Buddy McGirt:
“My entire 2008 as a whole, I felt like the more time I spent with Buddy as a trainer, the worse I was getting and the worse I was getting as a fighter.”
On whether wearing hair extensions in the rematch with Lovemore N’dou was a bad idea:
“Oh yeah, of course! (laughs) You live and you learn, I guess.”
On whether he regrets calling boxing “bullshit” following his loss to Juan Diaz:
“No, I don’t regret anything I said. Unless you’re involved in this business you don’t see what goes on beyond the scenes. Boxing is not exactly fixed, per se, but a lot of garbage happens behind the scenes.”
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Next up, we were also afforded the opportunity to have a nice chat with Sugar Ray Phillips. Here are some of the things he had to say:
On the upcoming mega bout between Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao:
“Pacquiao is the hottest thing right now. We have to see him and Mayweather get it on. They can’t get along so they might as well get it on, but Pacquiao got a tough fight in front of him (in Cotto)”
On when he first started using the “Sugar” moniker:
“I acquired the name ‘Sugar Ray’ back in 1968, and the media gave me the name “Sugar Ray” because I had a style similar to Sugar Ray Robinson.”
On his fight with Marvelous Marvin Hagler:
“I don’t think the referee should have stopped the fight. They stopped the fight due to a bad cut over both eyes, and Hagler kept hitting me with that big old bald head he had.”
On training investment brokers how to box:
“Well, I started training multi-millionaires back in the 70’s back when I was rated for cardiovascular and muscle tone to keep you living where you can see your grandkids—where you can see your kids’ kids—grandkids, one day, but you have to take care of yourself. Just because you have money that don’t mean you’re gonna live a long time.”
On his role as a bailiff in Eye for an Eye:
“So once I go there some of them rebel against it but it’s too late. Sometimes I have to restrain them, sometimes I have to put handcuffs on them, and a lot of them try to tackle me, try to wrestle me, try to hit me but I definitely restrain them. I weigh 222 pounds right now—solid as a middleweight like I used to be.”
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Finally, we were given the chance to talk to young prospect Shawn Porter, who just so happened to be Manny Pacquiao’s primary sparring partner for his preparations for his fight with Miguel Cotto. Here are some excerpts from the Porter interview:
On how he expects Pacquiao to fight against Porter:
“I think he’s going to be very, very dominant.”
On Miguel Cotto:
“I’ve seen Cotto fight a number of times and he has been able to hang in there with some of the quick fighters, but I think the difference with Manny is he works so hard and he puts his heart into everything he does, and I think we’ll see that in the fight.”
On Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach:
“Freddie [Roach] was very pleased with all the work I did with him, so no complaints from the head trainer and no complaints from my corner. Overall, this was a great, successful camp for both of us”
If you missed last week’s special edition of On the Ropes, be sure to tune in and listen now!
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