Paulie Malignaggi believes an unbeaten world champion could well be one of the greatest fighters to have ever laced up the gloves.
Known as the ‘Magic Man’, Malignaggi had an impressive professional career of his own which stretched for 16 years between 2001 and 2017.
He reigned as the IBF super lightweight world champion from 2007 and 2008, before making the move up to welterweight where he won the WBA Regular title and held it from 2012 until 2013.
Malignaggi shared the ring with a number of highly-rated fighters throughout the course of his tenure, including the likes of Shawn Porter, Ricky Hatton, Danny Garcia and Miguel Cotto.
Since announcing his retirement from boxing, Malignaggi has moved into working as an analyst and commentator across various media platforms.
Speaking on his own YouTube channel ‘PaulieTV’, Malignaggi suggested that reigning undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk could be the greatest of all time, as he claims older generations of heavyweight legends did not have to deal with ‘guys like’ Usyk.
“I know everybody’s big into their nostalgia, but remember Soviets were not turning pro until the 90s and I think that makes a big difference. That’s another thing, heavyweights are bigger, lefties are more common now and the Soviet era of fighters did not start turning pro until the 90s so the old days, they didn’t have to deal with those guys, so a lot of things that also favour Usyk being a GOAT.”
Usyk wrote his name into boxing history once again on Saturday night as he knocked out Britain’s Daniel Dubois to become the first ever two-time undisputed heavyweight champion who has also held all belts at cruiserweight.
The 38-year-old Ukrainian superstar stopped Dubois in the fifth round of their historic showdown at Wembley Stadium in London to cement himself as the greatest heavyweight of his generation. Though many would like to see him retire, the general feeling is he will have one more fight before doing so.