{"id":733023,"date":"2026-01-31T12:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T12:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/733023\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T12:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T12:39:15","slug":"paulie-malignaggi-lands-bare-knuckle-boxing-world-title-fight-after-being-blinded-by-horror-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/733023\/","title":{"rendered":"Paulie Malignaggi lands bare-knuckle boxing world title fight after being ‘blinded’ by horror injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paulie Malignaggi is gearing up for a blockbuster return to the Trigon, live on talkSPORT.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 45-year-old turned back the clock to outpoint Tyler Goodjohn in October, after six years out of the ring<\/a>, and he has now been rewarded with a BKB super welterweight title fight against Rolando Dy (4-1) on May 16 in Manchester.<\/p>\n

\"Malignaggi<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Malignaggi returns in May for a bare-knuckle world title fight against Dy<\/p>\n

Malignaggi (1-1) was left temporarily blind in his right eye<\/a> following five punishing rounds with Goodjohn at Leeds’ Planet Ice Arena.<\/p>\n

‘The Magic Man’s’ vision was compromised by an eye poke in the second stanza.<\/p>\n

And he admits that his sight still hasn’t completely returned, four months removed from the barnburning bout.<\/p>\n

“During the fight, I was seeing a white cloud on my right side, but I thought it was partial vision, I didn’t realise it was completely gone until the end of the fight,” Malignaggi told talkSPORT.com.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON BOXING <\/p>\n

“I had blurry vision for a long time; it probably hasn’t come back 100 per cent just yet.<\/p>\n

“It’s probably 90 per cent of what it was before, which is better than I expected because I wasn’t expecting much to come back.”<\/p>\n

Malignaggi was whisked off to the hospital in the aftermath of his split-decision victory, where he was given a rude introduction to the understaffed and overstretched NHS.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to bring my own plastic surgeon to this fight,” added a bemused Malignaggi.<\/p>\n

“There is no way I will go to a British hospital again. Not even animals deserve that kind of treatment.<\/p>\n

“Look at my eye, there is still a black and blue infection on the bottom of the scar. We are four months on now.<\/p>\n

\"Malignaggi<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Malignaggi couldn’t see out of his right eye after his last fight with Goodjohn<\/p>\n

“I waited all night to be stitched up, and it wasn’t even a good job.<\/p>\n

“I would expect third-world countries to have that [type of service], but I wouldn’t think England would.<\/p>\n

“It was eye-opening in the most shocking way. What is the point in going to the hospital? I’ll just stitch myself up next time.<\/p>\n

“They didn’t even have ice for my hands. My hands were swollen, and they didn’t give me ice all night. <\/p>\n

“In the US, the first thing they would have done is give me ice bags for my hands.”<\/p>\n

In spite of his torrid experience, the two-weight gloved world champion is looking forward to returning to British shores, where he has built up a considerable fan base over the years, owing to his high-profile dust-ups with national heroes Ricky Hatton<\/a> and Amir Khan.<\/p>\n

\"Paulie<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Malignaggi went to war with Goodjohn in the main event of BKB 47 in OctoberCredit: talkSPORT Boxing<\/p>\n

Malignaggi believes Britain has the best fans in the world, and he intends to give them something to cheer about when he locks horns with four-fight Filipino UFC veteran, Dy, in the spring.<\/p>\n

“From a stylistic standpoint, he seems strong; he is obviously capable as a champion, but I’d like to think that my quality is going to be too much for him,” continued Malignaggi.<\/p>\n

“I definitely bring a certain versatility to this from my boxing career that I don’t think a lot of guys do.<\/p>\n

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t have flaws; I’m still making adjustments to this sport. I have only had two bare-knuckle fights (lost to Artem Lobov in 2019 under the BKFC banner).<\/p>\n

“It’s a learning curve. I’m still adjusting how I want to punch and when I want to punch.<\/p>\n

“Do I throw single shots? Do I throw combinations? There is a difference in the way you are going to approach a fight with and without gloves, and I’m still navigating it.<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

“But it’s a good fight, and it’s a really good clash of styles.”<\/p>\n

To watch the full event, head over to the talkSPORT Boxing YouTube channel <\/a>on May 16.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paulie Malignaggi is gearing up for a blockbuster return to the Trigon, live on talkSPORT. The 45-year-old turned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[113402,78825,1935,4496,12138,48770,82898,217606,79,94916,12137,16,15,36292,51565,13417],"class_list":{"0":"post-733023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-bare-knuckle-boxing","9":"tag-bkb","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-boxing-news","12":"tag-mma-news","13":"tag-next-fight","14":"tag-paulie-malignaggi","15":"tag-rolando-dy","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tyler-goodjohn","18":"tag-ufc-news","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-when","22":"tag-where","23":"tag-who"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115989759384597560","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}