BT: So what's up man? We're just a few days away from the big fight. Other than all that other shit that's going on, how are you feeling?
PM: I'm excited man. I had a good camp. I feel good. I think everyone thinks ... I think after my last fight, I gave my reasons for that performance. I give my reasons for all my performances and they say, "He's just making an excuse." Well, we're gonna find out Saturday who was right. Me or everybody else? I think a lot of people, if they would sit back and listen and pay attention to what I'm saying, they would see that it makes sense, but people want to hate on Paulie Malignaggi so after Saturday night, I'll prove my point.
BT: In other interviews, without really putting the blame on Buddy McGirt, you talk about how working with him was sort of detrimental to your style...
PM: (Cutting in) I'll blame myself for one thing, man. I'll blame myself for this. I should have made the change [in trainers] after the Lovemore N'dou rematch. That's when I should have made the change. I am too much of a nice guy and didn't want to make the change, but the flaws were already too much at that point with back to back fights. Every time I had a training camp with the guy, I got worse and worse. I don't want to blame the guy like that. He's a cool guy, but at the end of the day, I didn't appreciate the fact that he kind of supposedly was going all in on me and saying I was scared of Ricky Hatton. Take a look at my entire career before you say something. People offered to give him DVDs of my fights so that he could know exactly what he was working with and could decide what he wanted to do with me. If he ever watched the Miguel Cotto fight or other fights, he would have realized that fear in Paulie is not one of the things that we have to worry about. He said I got rocked in round two [against Hatton] and I got scared. I was on my ass in round two against Cotto and I didn't get scared, okay. I was in with a better fighter, I was in with a bigger puncher and was at a tougher arena and I went, I put my ass on the line and I fought. So it has nothing to do with being scared. Did I go into a gun fight with water guns? Absolutely and that was my fault for allowing that to happen because I should have got with a new trainer before and I assure you I would have won the Ricky Hatton fight.
BT: So what is it that you think Buddy changed in your style? Was he trying to get you to be more stationary, sit in the pocket and counter punch more?
PM: He never told me not to use my legs, but he kept me so low. He changed my stance dude. Like, he literally changed my stance and my foundation. If you want to change some things, then alright, but I couldn't even fight. He kept me so low. Little by little, that takes away your legs because you can't stay low at that point and use your legs at the same time. You either gotta do one or the other. The more he changed and added to my style, the less of my legs you saw. I tried to use my legs, but I didn't have the flow to work off the movement. I had to move, I had to stop and I had to punch because I didn't have that flow anymore. That transition wasn't there anymore between the movement and the punching because we weren't working on it in the gym. Little by little, it started to go away. Like I said, the only fault I had was not seeing that sooner.
BT: I already know who you've been working with, but tell everyone who you're training with now and how that's been working out?
PM: My trainer is Sherif Younan and I've worked with him for a whole year. It's not just for the Juan Diaz fight. I've got my trainer I've been working with for a whole year so we've been meshing. I've been trying to get back to the things I was doing prior to the past two years. I think I'm going to come back faster. The thing is, not only has Sherif reminded me of the things that I was doing before, but I also added some new wrinkles. I think you're gonna see a Paulie Malignaggi that people are going to be surprised about, but at the same time, they shouldn't be. I was capable of this all the time, you know what I mean? I'm glad I'm getting an opportunity with a fighter like Diaz who everybody respects and everybody knows is a big name fighter. The only thing people will say is that Hatton hits harder so when I beat him, they're going to say, "Well, it's because he didn't hit as hard as Hatton." Well Hatton didn't really hit that hard bro. I mean, he's got a lot of knockouts against a lot of not-so-good fighters. I don't want to knock him because he's a nice guy; one of the coolest guys I've met in boxing, but at the end of the day, nothing he did affected the performance on November 22nd. It was all my problem. People were saying, "Oh, Mayweather Sr. made a big difference. He outboxed the boxer." No he didn't! I lost all my arsenal. I lost my speed, I lost my boxing ability in two years and that was the climax of it all. There was nothing Mayweather Sr. added to that guy's arsenal that helped him in that fight. As a matter of fact, I was in there and I was like, "Wow, this guy isn't even good and I'm losing every single round." I was frustrated. It was very frustrating because this guy is nowhere near the level of Miguel Cotto. Matter of fact, I pick Miguel Cotto over Manny. Although I lost that fight with him, I admit I came out of that fight knowing that was a very quality fighter. I think he's going to knockout Pacquiao in November as opposed to me picking Pacquiao to knock Hatton out once I saw Pacquiao just beat De La Hoya, knowing that I was just in there with Hatton on November 22nd. He didn't do anything so special.
BT: Honestly, that's one of the things I said after your fight with Hatton, that...
PM: (Cuttin in) It's such a shame. It's such a fucking shame that I'll never get that shot again. That was the biggest shot of my career. It's such a fucking shame that I had to be an asshole and not make that change sooner. Had I made the change...this guy is not even that good. I'm telling you, Ricky Hatton was not that good. I'm not saying that to discredit him. He just wasn't that good bro. I know quality when I'm in the ring with it. Whether you beat me or you don't beat me, I know quality when I'm in the ring with it. I will say one thing. Miguel Cotto was very high quality.
BT: Do you think Miguel Cotto is less quality now than he was when you faced him?
PM: No. I think he's just fighting such killers that now the competition is going to be close. I've been in the gym with Joshua Clottey my whole career and I know that guy's a boxer. No matter what. No matter how badly he's been promoted or how badly he's been managed, and he's been terribly managed and promoted, his career has been horribly moved...Josh Clottey is an animal bro. I KNEW that fight was going to be close. As a matter of fact, I told people, I said, "You know something? If Cotto ends up fighting Pacquiao after this fight, he'll have had a tougher fight with Joshua Clottey because Clottey is a bigger man as well as being a quality fighter." As a matter of fact, if Joshua Clottey fought Manny Pacquiao at 147 pounds, I would pick Joshua Clottey to beat him. You know what I mean? That's how good Joshua Clottey is in my opinion, along with the size. And you know what, I came out of watching Cotto-Clottey and I thought Josh Clottey won the fight. I have Cotto DEFINITELY beating Manny Pacquiao.
BT: Wow (laughing).
PM: Mark my words. I'm telling you. Mark my words. My trainer doesn't believe me man. We have little arguments every day. He thinks Pacquiao is going to beat Cotto, but I'm telling you, I've been in the ring with the guy. I know. I've been in the ring with Hatton and I told everybody, "Man, Hatton is getting stopped by Pacquiao!" I'm telling you, I've been in the ring with this guy [Cotto]. This guy is no joke!
BT: You know, I actually probably would have agreed with you if they weren't fighting at a catch-weight...
PM: (Cutting in) But the catch-weight is only 145 pounds man. I don't think they made...had it been 143 pounds, I would have said maybe that's too much for Cotto, but 145 pounds, I mean, Cotto weighed 146 for the Clottey fight. I don't think they're really making Cotto drain himself the way you should, you know what I mean? Cotto used to destroy these guys at 140 pounds because he's a bigger man. If you're making him weaken himself, which I don't think 145 pounds is enough to where it can weaken him, but it would have to be so much bigger than this guy...he's not even inside the ring with a 140 pounder; he's smaller than that. But the punching power he's gonna get hit with, it's gonna start to break him...Cotto knows what he's doing man, believe me. He's a smart fighter behind all that pressure and he's got a big punch behind it.
BT: Given everything that's going on with the judges, what do you think the chances are of you stopping Diaz? I assume the hands are holding up okay.
PM: Oh, I feel very strongly that I can stop him. I know people are like, "Aw, Paulie can't punch." Yo, I'm not giving you candy either, a punch in your mouth is still a punch in your mouth and if I hit anybody in their mouth, believe me, any one of these people who say, "Oh, Paulie can't punch," if I punched them right in the mouth, believe me, they're gonna feel it. I'm still throwin' punches. At the end of the day, a punch is a punch is a punch. No matter who throws a punch.
BT: This is actually one of the rare occassions that you're considered to be the bigger dude in the ring.
PM: Yeah, I'm the bigger dude. If that's an advantage, so be it, but my advantage is that I'm a better fighter and I'm going to prove it to everybody on Saturday night. I had a great camp. We've been working hard. My advantage, moreso than "he's bigger" or "he doesn't hit as hard as Hatton" or whatnot, although he probably does because honestly Hatton doesn't hit that hard, the biggest advantage is that I'm a more quality fighter and that's going to take me over the top.
BT: How do you plan on dealing with Juan's pressure? To me, at times, he seems pretty one-dimensional like Hatton, but he's always coming forward and...
PM: (Cuttin in) He's kind of one-dimensional and he does what he does very well; he throws 100 punches every round, but he's going to be fighting somebody who's also used to hitting punching bags that are standing right in front of him. I want to see how Juan Diaz deals with counter punches and getting hit with punches he didn't see. How he deals with a fighter who's making him miss while actually getting beat to the body and head. I want to see how he deals with his own frustration. It's one thing if he hits a guy and they hit him back and then he hits the guy and they hit him back and he hits the guy and they hit him back, but eventually, Juan Diaz is a lot more energetic than his opponent and eventually he wears them down. I want to see what he does when he gets hit, he hits the guy back and then gets hit with two more, then maybe miss a couple and gets hit again, I want to see how he can deal with missing and not being able to find the target. I'm going to show 'em Saturday.
BT: Well good luck on Saturday night bro. I know it seems like the deck is stacked against you, but just fight your fight man and whatever is supposed to happen will happen.
PM: Boxing is a bullshit sport and a bullshit business. I'll say it again and again and again. I've put it out there. I'm glad I got a chance to talk to you. Thank you man. Take care brotha.
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