Paulie Malignaggi has responded to Jason Knight’s callout for a boxing match, and says only one thing can lure him out of retirement.
He has to be compensated correctly.
Malignaggi recently announced he was done with bare knuckle boxing following his unanimous decision loss to Artem Lobov at BKFC 6, where he suffered injuries to both of his hands.
Knight, on the other hand, was able to avenge his loss to Lobov this past weekend at BKFC 9 with a fifth-round TKO. Malignaggi praised Knight for his calculated performance over Lobov, saying he’d consider fighting him if he was compensated well – and perhaps with a change in ruleset to fight in boxing gloves to avoid further damage to his hands.
“Well done Jason, solid adjustments Saturday night. I have not yet seen the fight but saw higlights and your sense of timing and disciplined game plan was very impressive to notice. You def caught onto a few tactics from my fight and fought smarter. I wish my hands could survive the impact again cause truthfully I enjoyed the experience and wouldn’t have minded facing you after your display. However I have a career history of hand problems and I cannot keep risking them or I’m gonna wind up with permanent damage to them. If there are interested parties that are willing to put up enough money I am not against regular boxing though where some protection for my hands is there. Maybe David can do a card where you and I glove up but instead of a ring we can fight in the bkfc squared circle with our undercard consisting of bare knuckle fights. Again its dependant on the compensation. After all, we are prizefighters. Once again though, well done and congrats on an impressive display.”
Knight responded to Malignaggi in the comments section of his Instagram post, and they briefly went back and forth.
“Thanks brother, I’d love to make this happen… and it’s not a disrespect thing either, I’d just like the test against a real boxer and see where I stand skill wise,” Knight posted.
“No disrespect taken at all,” Malignaggi said. “You are a competitor and I respect that. If someone compensates us well for the fight I can def consider it and we can go from there. This forum is public so people can see the interest in making this possibility a reality is there from us both. I have also given a possible way we can do it with bkfc still promoting it if they have this interest 🥊💯”
