Speaking to Lord Ping former world champion Paulie Malignaggi speaks on Wayne Rooney, Conor Mcgregor, Canelo Alvarez, Carl Froch, John Fury, Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou.
- Wayne Rooney versus Zlatan Ibrahimovic will break all pay-per-view records
- ‘Punching bag’ Conor McGregor not competitive against Manny Pacquiao
- Tyson Fury may have faked his injury to play ‘mindgames’ with Uysk
What do you think about Wayne Rooney boxing?
"I don't think it's a bad idea, Wayne was always a physical forward like a Christian Vieri type. I think Rooney has the physicality and the skills, he was a very strong and a tremendous athlete. He's a big boxing fan, when I met him he knew who I was, which threw me off. I'm interested in him boxing. There are certain guys in football who might be able to do some fighting; Wayne Rooney, Romelu Lukaku, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, I'm on board with it.
Who should he fight?
“Rooney should go down the Jake Paul route, you've got to fight another footballer or NBA guy, or a rugby guy. Start with that. Jake Paul started with retired NBA guys, so I don't think Wayne goes right into a fight with a real fighter. Go with another well-known athlete. If we're going to do another footballer, make Rooney versus Ibrahimovic. That fight would break all pay-per-view records, that would easily do a million buys. Easy. Think about the promotion, the video clips of the two being physical on the football field, you could sell them as fighters in that way. Wayne and Zlatan is the one I want to see.
Would you fight Rooney?
“No. My days of exhibitions are done. I've been offered Anthony Pettis and Dan Hardy in the boxing ring. I've turned them down. I don't really have that motivation in me to go through with it. It's an exhibition, but you've still got to go through camp, you don't want to turn up looking like a slob. You've got to spar, you really could not offer me enough money to do it. I don't need the money. But I'd watch Rooney for sure.”
What about Carl Froch and John Fury?
“John Fury is really tough, but with gloves on I'm not sure what kind of damage he can do. But I'll tell you what - Carl Froch has had a nose job so he's not going to risk that nose by fighting again, I promise that. Froch is not fighting again after having that nose job, he's not wasting that money. I'll be honest, Carl Froch's nose job looks good, so why waste a good nose job by boxing again? Carl put in all the work so he could go get a good nose job and not fight again - and I think that's what he's going to do.”
Froch won't risk new nose
Will Conor McGregor fight again?
“Why would he put himself in a situation where he can get knocked out? I feel like he's playing games with Michael Chandler, holding the payday over his head. He's a very insecure person, so it doesn't surprise me what he's trying to do to Chandler. As a man and as a fighter there should be a commitment to fighting Chandler or not. The man has no balls. He's such an insecure prick, it's wild to see. I don't think the Chandler fight happens. Inside he knows he's a punching bag at this point and he's not going to risk getting hurt again. Why try to be a tough guy when you can pretend to be a tough guy in the movies? People fall for it, people think that Brad Pitt can fight, they think actors can fight, so McGregor should carry on being the pretend tough guy. Why risk doing it for real and being a punching bag? He can sell himself better in the acting world than the fighting world.”
What do you think about Conor calling out Manny Pacquiao?
‘He's terrible at boxing, awful. There's a reason that after six years you've only seen six seconds of my sparring with him. That's not by accident. Had he had any sort of accomplishment or success against me you'd have seen the whole thing already. I think the Manny fight would sell but he wouldn't be competitive at all against Pacquiao, plus Pacquiao has a lot of power and that's the last thing you lose. Plus McGregor doesn't have a very good chin or desire. Pacquiao would throw combinations and go at McGregor in a very offensive way and I don't think it's the right option for McGregor. He'd once again become a punching bag. How many times will he go to the well and then have to rescue himself from this punching bag image? He's like a mercenary. If he continues to fight and allows himself to get beat up like this, he's got no self-pride at all. He's basically the same as a mercenary, allowing himself to get railed by everyone for money. This guy is the fighter's equivalent of that. Getting his ass kicked left, right, and centre just for a few bucks. He's the fighter's version of a mercenary if that's what he keeps doing.”
McGregor would be the Pacman's punch bag
Is Tyson Fury really cut?
“Is Fury really cut? Can you reschedule it to May 18 if the cut is really that bad? I don't know, man. And then you have to question whether there was really a cut, or was that an old video or picture? One thing I'll say about Tyson Fury is that he's the master of mind games. I remember he was pulling out of the Klitschko fight and by the time they got in the ring Wladimir wasn't prepared mentally and was losing his mind. Fury is the master of mind games and you can see he’s made Usyk's manager go crazy. Tyson Fury's mind games tug on you emotionally and then you're suddenly not as physically and mentally prepared as you want to be. Usyk, though, is typically Eastern European, very stoic, and stronger mentally than Klitschko was. It's a difficult fight for Usyk anyway.”
“I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that the 'cut' is all mind games because Fury is the master of mind games. Because Fury consistently plays mind games you start to wonder, is this a part of the mind games? Is this a part of the psyche job? In order to play the psyche job you have to have the leverage, McGregor is doing this as well with Chandler, if you don't have the leverage, you can't do it. But Fury has the leverage because he holds the commercial value.”
AJ vs Ngannou?
“It's a hard one to come back from if he loses, but I think he backs Ngannou up and stops him. I like what I saw against Wallin, I think Ben Davidson is one of the better trainers in boxing today, he's really shown he's super adept at taking on world-class fighters and improving them, and it was the best AJ I've seen in a while. Ngannou is a puncher, and as with most punchers, if you back them up, you can nullify them. Ngannou looked great as an MMA guy in boxing, his feet were good. But a very well-prepared AJ who backs you up behind the jab with changes of rhythm, you're going to take away Ngannou's power. As impressed as I was with Ngannou, I still think AJ takes him out pretty easily.
AJ takes out Ngannou easily
Is Canelo ducking Benavidez?
“This is the biggest duck job since Mike Tyson ducked Lennox Lewis. It might be the biggest duck job ever. This is a mandatory situation, a champion with the undisputed title, the public is clamouring for it, the best fighter in the weight class deserves it. The challenger is known, he headlines pay-per-views. Benavidez ticks all the boxes, this is a massive duck job. This is the biggest duck job I've seen in my life. And the fact that sanctioning bodies haven't stripped him is a disgrace and the fact that Canelo doesn't even need to pay a step-aside fee is disgraceful.”
Floyd or Naseem Hamed?
“I think Mayweather would have beaten Hamed, remember Hamed was originally a bantamweight, so I think Mayweather would be too big for Hamed. It would be a fun fight and a great build-up, especially in today's social media age. Imagine them in their primes in today's social media age, that would be massive, but Mayweather would have been too big.
Haye or AJ?
“Haye is a super athlete. But he was a bit of an enigma, he had all the talent, had the look and everything, you believed he'd win, but then he'd show up and lay an egg like he did against Klitschko. Haye was an enigma, so on one hand, you'd think he could beat Joshua, but then you think it's Haye, he'd probably figure out a way not to be good in a fight like that. I'm not knocking Haye, he was a great cruiserweight, but I'd pick AJ. AJ would be too vicious."
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