Paulie Malignaggi is an excellent boxing commentary, but going back to his fighting days he has always controversial.
He has always said suspect things.
He has been able to get away with it for so long because fighting sports aren’t as regulated as other sports. In 2020 though even boxing has to be sensitive to certain comments and according to Stephen Espinoza they gave Paulie a long rope, but eventually, he hung himself.
In an interview with IFL, Malignaggi referenced how “it’s no longer the time of the African American in boxing” and how Eastern European fighters have “become the dominant species.” He additionally said he believed “racial oppression in 2020” is “all made up and exaggerated.”
Malignaggi, a former two-division world champion from Brooklyn, had also inflamed his bosses with disparaging remarks about Black Lives Matter and the single-parent rates of Black children in recent months. One Showtime official told The Athletic that the IFL interview was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“I’ve seen some of what’s been written (regarding Malignaggi’s termination),” Espinoza said on Monday’s podcast. “Some of it is a little simplistic … some writers have attributed it to one specific instance. Really, that’s not quite accurate. It was a bigger holistic thing.”
Abner Mares has taken over for Paulie, but no word on if he will be the long term replacement.
Flip the page for the full IFL interview.