BOXING royalty came out to see Paulie Malignaggi’s return to fighting in Leeds.
Carl Froch, Josh Warrington, Natasha Jonas and Paul Smith were all at a packed Planet Ice to watch the 44-year-old New Yorker fight on a bareknuckle boxing show promoted by BKB.
They saw Malignaggi outpoint Tyler Goodjohn over five, three-minute rounds in the three-sided trigon.
Malignaggi spent the night in hospital afterwards after suffering cuts over both eyes, along with possible broken ribs and damage to his right eye.
Most of the wounds were inflicted in the closing two rounds. Malignaggi, a former IBF super-lightweight and WBA welterweight champion, used fast flurries of punches and movement to build a points loss before Goodjohn came back.
He said Goodjohn – also a former gloved pro having his last fight – “took no prisoners,” but despite the damage, Malignaggi plans to continue fighting.
Malignaggi said he was “considering” a return to gloved boxing – he hasn’t competed since a loss to Sam Eggington in 2017 – and also said he wants to replicate his boxing success by becoming a two-weight world champion in the trigon.
He targeted the winner of the Liam Rees-Rolando Dy clash for the super-welterweight belt in Cardiff on December 5 and then plans to move down to 147 lbs.
Froch instantly declared himself a fan of the sport, saying: “This is what it’s all about. There are lots of knockdowns, lots of knockouts. If I was still fighting this is where I need to be, this has my name all over it” and Warrington didn’t rule out fighting in the three-sided trigon.
Marko Martinjak has made a successful switch from gloved to bareknuckle boxing.
The Croatian has an 8-28-2 (5) record with gloves – and is a two-weight world champion in the trigon, putting his name in the record books alongside Lorawnt T ‘Smash’ Nelson, another ex-gloved pro, by chinning Dan Podmore on Saturday to add the bridgerweight belt to his cruiserweight crown.
There were three knockdowns in the 91 seconds the Martinjak-Podmore punch up lasted.
Down after only 16 seconds, Martinjak got up to drop Podmore twice, finishing the fight with an unanswered burst of 12 hooks and uppercuts.
Martinjak says he could next challenge for the world heavyweight championship that ‘Cuban Assassin’ Gustavo Trujillo defends against Tony Johnson in South Florida on November 22.
Trujillo is also 9-0 (8) in pro gloved boxing.
