With the majority of boxing and sporting events either canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus covid-19 outbreak, fighters and those involved with the sport are staying indoors with time on their hands while under self quarantine.
Former 140-pound and 147-pound champion Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi spoke with Fight Hype via phone and gave his opinion on what match-up he would like to see most if he could play matchmaker for the welterweight division.
“Maybe Pacquiao and [Danny] Garcia, it’s an interesting style match-up,” Malignaggi told Fight Hype.
Malignaggi found it funny that the older man in Pacquiao would be the one who would try to out work the younger guy in Danny Garcia and believes its a great clash of styles because one is reckless and the other is great at timing.
“Pacquiao can outwork him somehow. I don’t know, you are 42 years old and outwork the younger guy,” laughed Malignaggi. “Danny is a very good timing fighter. Danny might be the best timing fighter in boxing. When he catches you coming and Pacquiao does come in recklessly a lot, so, I think it’s a nice style gel, a nice style mesh. If you give me a fight to make at welterweight, I wanna see Manny Pacquiao and Danny Garcia.”
The former two-division world champion and current boxing commentator really believes a Pacquiao vs. Garcia fight would be competitive and believes Pacquiao is still the same wild fighter who got knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez years ago.
“Danny’s style is hard to appreciate by people who aren’t really, really into boxing,” expressed Malignaggi. “His timing is so good, and Pacquiao jumps in real reckless, he didn’t learn anything from the [Juan Manuel] Marquez knockout, he still jumps in just the same way. Danny you see what he does to guys who jump in like that. You saw what he did to Amir Khan. You saw what he did to Erik Morales when he jumped in with the hook and he knocked him out hooking with him. Danny Garcia is a very, very good timing fighter, he dropped Zab Judah a couple times all based off timing counters like that.
“You know Pacquiao flies in and if Danny mistimes him, he is probably on the other end of a big combination. But, if Danny times him Pacquiao is on his ass. It’s one of those fights where I think the level of success could be measured in both guys. They could both have a certain level of success. Both guys are mentally strong which I love. I love guys who are willing to go into the fire a little bit and be willing to go through what they have to go through to win a fight. I think it has all the ingredients to make a good fight,” said Malignaggi.
Manny Pacquiao was looking to return to the ring in July of 2020 to defend his WBA welterweight belt but those plans could likely be pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.
