MALIGNAGGI: IF PACQUIAO TAKES THE TEST, I'LL BECOME HIS #1 FAN
By G. Leon
GL: Lots of talk about you fighting Pacquiao if the Mayweather fight collapses. Can you give us your thoughts on this and how it came about? "I just got some phone calls and I started hearing some things and it's an exciting prospect."
GL: It's no secret that you've said some things about Pacquiao. Do you have a new position on Pacquiao? What is your opinion on the legitimacy of Manny Pacquiao fights?
Paul Malignaggi: "I gave my opinion, it's my opinion an I feel the same way. That being said, I have full confidence in the drug testing procedures of the Nevada Commission and that they will conduct the proper testing. At the end of the day, they were my observations and my opinions. Let's keep in mind that Manny Pacquiao has never failed a drug test. But there are certain things I have observed him that have led me to my opinions."
GL: Yet you're still willing to fight him, under the full jurisdiction of Vegas.
PM: "Yeah. But I just can't see how over a drug test Manny Pacquiao is going to turn down a fight with Mayweather and $40M. It's cool to have my name in the mix, but at the end of the day, how do you not fight a fight like this over a test? Look, if they can't make it happen, Manny Pacquiao will have his hands full with me. Let's not forget, I possess a style that he hasn't had to deal with yet. I can box, I can match his speed, I'm not flat-footed, and I'm a constantly improving fighter each time I fight with
Sherif Younan. But if he's on something how do you catch him if you don't do the proper testing? Listen, at the end of the day a lot of evidence shows you he could be on something. The only way you can know for sure if he gets the proper testing. The fact that he's willing to risk it all and leave a fight like this on the table makes it more fishy. I'm a pro-athlete. I'm going to put it to you like this, if I worked that hard and achieved all that in my career and people questioned the integrity that I have an how I achieved, I'd be willing to take those tests because I would want to leave no doubt that I did all this naturally. As an athlete I would be in a rush to clear my name and the fact that he's avoiding it, is the opposite of how any athlete should have reacted. Any athlete who was probably guilty would act that way in my opinion, it seems a little strange to me. It's seems a little strange to me."
GL: Strager than a 40 year old Bernard Hopkins dominating light heavyweight after 21 middleweight defenses?
PM: "But Bernard Hopkins doesn't get hit clean against monster punchers moving up in weight. Manny Pacquiao is going up in weight and he's literally walking through people. He's not a defensive specialist...
GL: (cutting in) "Other than Cotto, who did he walk though? What did he do that was so unusual?
PM: "Do you see the way the guy does anything against these big men?"
GL: De La Hoya was supposedly a dead man in the ring because he didn't gain any weight from the weigh-in.
PM: How do you know? The year before he gave Mayweather a very tough fight."
GL: That was 54 and he wasn't bone dry.
PM: "Even the David Diaz fight. Diaz is not an elite fighter, but that was a fight that Diaz fought back in. Pacquiao didn't show any extra skills, he's just walked through a bigger guy. Roy Jones kept going up in weight and outskilled guys. If he was outskilling them, to me it would be different. It's just my opinion based on what I'm seeing. This is the first guy I've ever seen been able to walk through bigger men and it seems strange to me."
