Paulie Malignaggi signs with Golden Boy
Paulie Malignaggi, a former junior welterweight champion, has ended a run as a free agent and signed a three year deal with Golden Boy Promotions.
“This is the best career move I've made and I'm thankful to Golden Boy Promotions for giving me this opportunity," said Malignaggi, who intends to move up and fight at welterweight.
"I know they can give me the biggest and best fights out there and that's what I want at this point in my career. This is the start of a new stage of my career. A new promoter, a new weight class and a
new opportunity to face the best, beat the best and win a world championship."
While some have wondered why Golden Boy didn’t attempt to sign Malignaggi earlier in his career, the timing makes sense since Golden Boy recently announced a deal to promote monthly cards at the Barclays
Center in Brooklyn, and Malignaggi is a Brooklyn native. The arena will be used primarily for the NBA’s Nets franchise, and is set to open in 2012.
As well Golden Boy stated that Malignaggi will assist in the promotion of shows in Los Angeles.
"That establishes me more in my hometown and helps establish them in New York," Malignaggi said, who added he was looking forward to the promotional aspects of his deal.
The “Golden Boy” himself, Oscar De la Hoya also spoke of his excitment about his new signing.
"We are very excited to add Paulie to our roster of fighters. We have worked with him on numerous fights and his flashy style is exciting to watch both in and out of the ring. We have big plans in store
for him and are thrilled that he is in our corner."
Ironically, four out of five of Malignaggi’s last opponents have been Golden Boy fighters.
He was stopped in the 11th round of a bout with WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan last May, and hopes to re-establish himself in the junior welterweight division.
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